Reparative Behavior Research Articles

On the role of harmonious and obsessive romantic passion in conflict behavior

Using the dualistic model of passion (Vallerand et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 85:756–767, 2003), the present research examined the role of harmonious and obsessive romantic passion in individuals’ engagement in destructive behavior during conflict and in reparative behaviors following conflict with one’s partner. Results revealed that harmonious and obsessive passion were respectively negatively and positively related to engagement in destructive conflict behavior. In addition, harmonious passion was positively related to reparative behaviors following conflict while obsessive passion was not significantly related to this outcome. Importantly, these results held whether data were obtained by asking participants to recall about how things typically happen when they experience conflict with their partner (Study 1) or whether diary data were averaged across days when conflict actually happened (Study 2). Results underscore the importance of distinguishing harmonious from obsessive romantic passion.

Guilt, Shame, and Reparative Behavior: The Effect of Psychological Proximity

Research has paid scant attention to reparative behavior to compensate for unintended wrongdoing or to the role of emotions in doing the right thing. We propose a new approach to investigating reparative behavior by looking at moral emotions and psychological proximity. In this study, we compare the effects of moral emotions (guilt and shame) on the level of compensation for financial harm. We also investigate the role of transgressors’ perceived psychological proximity to the victims of wrongdoing. Our hypotheses were tested through a scenario based questionnaire on a sample of 261 participants. Analyses indicate that (1) guilt has a stronger effect on the level of compensation than shame; (2) psychological proximity influences the level of guilt, shame, and compensation; and (3) shame interacts with psychological proximity to predict compensation, whereas guilt mediates the relationship between psychological proximity and compensation.

Guilty Feelings, Targeted Actions

Early investigations of guilt cast it as an emotion that prompts broad reparative behaviors that help guilty individuals feel better about themselves or about their transgressions. The current investigation found support for a more recent representation of guilt as an emotion designed to identify and correct specific social offenses. Across five experiments, guilt influenced behavior in a targeted and strategic way. Guilt prompted participants to share resources more generously with others, but only did so when those others were persons whom the participant had wronged and only when those wronged individuals could notice the gesture. Rather than trigger broad reparative behaviors that remediate one's general reputation or self-perception, guilt triggers targeted behaviors intended to remediate specific social transgressions.

Reparative Behaviors and Self-forgiveness: Effects of a Laboratory-based Exercise

Two studies evaluated a laboratory-based exercise designed to facilitate reparative behaviors (e.g., apology, amends) and self-forgiveness. In Study 1, all participants (undergraduates; 50 men, 37 women) did the exercise. Participants reported self-forgiveness increases that were partly maintained over two weeks. In Study 2, undergraduates (75 men, 92 women) were randomly assigned to conditions: responsibility/repair (yes/no) × self-forgiveness (yes/no). The responsibility/repair-alone condition (without self-forgiveness) increased the odds that women would offer reparative behaviors. The self-forgiveness component predicted greater self-forgiveness increases at follow-up, but only among those who actively tried to forgive themselves during the two weeks. In both studies, reparative behaviors predicted self-forgiveness increases and were more likely when offenses were recent, relationships were close, and relational repair had already begun.

Moving Toward Self-Forgiveness: Removing Barriers Related to Shame, Guilt, and Regret

When people believe that they have hurt or offended someone, one potentially adaptive response would be to forgive the self. In an ideal process of self-forgiveness, an offender would accept an appropriate amount of responsibility, experience enough guilt to prompt reparative behaviors and improvements in character, and then release excess guilty feelings that no longer serve a useful function. In real life, however, this process often goes awry. Sometimes people avoid guilty feelings altogether, taking emotional shortcuts to repair their moods and self-images without accepting responsibility or repairing relational damage. Others go to the opposite extreme, getting caught up in negative feelings such as shame, excessive guilt, and regret about their offenses. This article briefly reviews research on these potentially problematic responses and suggests ways that each one could be addressed in interventions to facilitate self-forgiveness.

Does the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) measure maladaptive aspects of guilt and adaptive aspects of shame? An empirical investigation

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA; Tangney, J. P., Wagner, P. E., & Gramzow, R. (1989). The Test of Self-Concious Affect. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University) measures maladaptive forms or aspects of guilt and adaptive aspects of shame that have been described in the literature. First, a judgmental and logical analysis showed that the TOSCA primarily measures mild and adaptive forms and aspects of guilt and maladaptive aspects of shame. Next, principal components analyses (PCAs) in a student ( N=328) and adult ( N=542) sample showed that items that had a high loading on the guilt factor primarily were items that referred to reparative behavior, while items that had high loadings on the shame factor consisted primarily of items that referred to low self-esteem. To investigate to which extent these items were responsible for correlations found with the TOSCA, we constructed a revised guilt scale containing only items that referred to reparative behavior and a revised shame scale consisting of items that only referred to negative self-esteem, and related these to indices of interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning. The revised TOSCA scales reproduced both the pattern and magnitude of correlations obtained with the original TOSCA scales. Thus, taken together, the results of this study support the interpretation of the TOSCA guilt scale as a measure of mild and adaptive forms of guilt and the TOSCA shame scale as a measure of maladaptive aspects associated with shame. Implications of these findings for further research on the nature of guilt and shame are discussed.

Development of concern for others.

The development of prosocial and reparative bebaviors was investigated by examining children's responses to distresses they caused and those they witnessed in others during the 2nd year of life. Prosocial behaviors (help, sharing, provision of comfort) emerged between the ages of 1 and 2, increasing in frequency and variety over this time period. These behaviors were linked to expressions of concern as well as efforts to understand and experience the other's plight. Children's reparative behaviors after they had caused distress also increased with age. Age changes in these early signs of moral development were accompanied by social-cognitive changes in self-recognition. In assessments at age 2, children were most responsive to distress in their mothers but also showed some sensitivity toward unfamiliar persons

Vitamin A and wound healing

Retinoids have long been associated with wound healing, but objective data, until recently, have been scarce. Vitamin A deficiency retards repair. Secondly, retinoids restore steroid-retarded repair toward normal. Because vitamin A tends to suppress fibroblasts in cell culture and stimulate steroid-treated macrophages to initiate reparative behavior in tissue, we favor the hypothesis that retinoids are particularly important in macrophagic inflammation, which plays a central role in the control of wound healing. Probably all patients who take anti-inflammatory steroids should control their retinoid intake, but how they should control it is as yet unknown.