Role of Guilt in Relationship of Negative Emotions and Attitude towards Society among University Students

Abstract

Background: The individual's behaviors and attitudes are the outcome of one’s feelings and emotions related to life. This study was aimed to understand the role of guilt in the relationship of negative emotions with aggression, bullying, and shyness among university students (N = 270) through cross sectional research design. Methods: The current study was comprised of two phases: in phase I. Guilt and shame proneness scale (Cohen, Wolf, Panter, & Insko, 2011), Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (Gross & John, 1997), Aggression Scale (Orpinas & Frankowski, 2001), and Shyness Scale (Cheek & Melichor, 1985) were translated in Urdu for present study through the back-translation method. An Urdu translated version of the Illinois Bullying Scale (Espelage & Holt, 2001) translated by Shujja and Atta (2013) was also used to measure the pertinent construct. Results: Phase-II was carried out to test study hypotheses through correlation coefficient and Hierarchical regression to study the moderating effect of guilt. Findings revealed that there is a positive relationship between aggression and bullying. A high level of guilt significantly moderated the relationship between negative emotions and aggression. Conclusions: The current study focused on the role of guilt in the relationship of negative emotions with aggression, bullying, and shyness. The present study indicated that guilt has a negative relation with negative emotions, aggression, bullying and shyness. Aggression was found positively correlated with bullying and shyness. Limitations, suggestions, and practical implications were also thoroughly discussed