Shame on Me! Self-Conscious Emotions and Big Five Personality Traits and Their Relations to Anxiety Disorders Symptoms in Young, Non-Clinical Adolescents

Peter Muris,Cor Meesters,Mike Van Asseldonk

doi:10.1007/s10578-017-0747-7

Peter Muris, Cor Meesters + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-017-0747-7

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Abstract

This study explored the relations between self-conscious emotions, personality traits, and anxiety disorders symptoms in non-clinical youths. One-hundred-and-eighteen adolescents aged 12–15 years completed the brief shame and guilt questionnaire for children (BSGQ-C) and items of the youth self-report (YSR) to measure shame and guilt, the big five personality questionnaire for children, and the youth anxiety measure for DSM-5. Results for shame indicated that this self-conscious emotion—either measured by the BSGQ-C or the YSR—was uniquely and positively associated with a broad range of anxiety disorders symptoms, and correlated positively with neuroticism and negatively with extraversion. Guilt did not show significant associations with anxiety disorders symptoms once controlling for the influence of shame, and links with personality traits varied dependent on the assessment instrument that was used (BSGQ-C or YSR). Finally, when controlling for neuroticism and extraversion, shame consistently remained a significant correlate of anxiety disorders symptoms. Altogether, these results add to the growing body of evidence indicating that high levels of shame are clearly associated with anxiety pathology.

Highlights

The self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt are experienced when a person violates some moral or social standard while realizing that this transgression is noticed by other people
The present study further explored the relations between self-conscious emotions, Big Five personality traits, and anxiety symptoms in youths
The present study investigated all Big Five personality traits in relation to self-conscious emotion and anxiety symptoms, which is relevant as earlier research has shown that extraversion is at least as important as neuroticism within the context of selfconscious emotions and anxiety

Summary

Introduction

The self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt are experienced when a person violates some moral or social standard while realizing that this transgression is noticed by other people. Tangney [4] was among the first scholars to point out that this distinction between guilt and shame may be relevant for our understanding of psychopathology. She argued that guilt should be primarily viewed as a “good” emotion; because of its positive associations with morality and empathy, this self-conscious emotion probably prevents the development of externalizing (i.e., disruptive behavior) problems. Tangney labeled shame as “bad and ugly”, as excessively high levels of this self-conscious emotion likely promote inferiority, self-punishment,

Results

Discussion

Conclusion