Self-conscious Emotions Of Guilt Research Articles

Relationship between Marital Commitment and Marital Satisfaction with Self-Conscious Emotions and Self-Coherence married female

Objective: This research aimed to examine the relationship between marital commitment and marital satisfaction with self-conscious emotions and self-coherence. Method: A descriptive correlation design was adopted. The sample consists of 160 married female students aged 20 to 65 years studying in Islamic Azad University in Tehran, selected by available method. Data collection tools included the Marital Commitment Questionnaire (MCQ), ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMS), the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA), and the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient tests and multiple regression analysis. Results: The results showed that the self-conscious emotion of shame has a significant negative relationship with marital commitment and marital satisfaction of married women (p<0.01), while the self-conscious emotion of guilt and self-coherence had a significant positive relationship with marital commitment and marital satisfaction of married women (p<0.01). Also, the self-conscious emotion of shame (p<0.05) and self-coherence (p<0.01) can predict the marital commitment of married women. However, the self-conscious emotion of guilt did not contribute to the prediction of marital commitment of married women (p>0.05). In addition, the self-conscious emotions of shame(p<0.01) and guilt (p<0.05), and self-coherence (p<0.01) were predictors of married women's marital satisfaction. Conclusion: In total, self-conscious emotions and self-coherence were able to explain 25% of the changes in marital commitment and 34% of the changes in marital satisfaction of married women. As a result, feelings of shame and guilt as self-conscious emotions of married women and their psychological coherence to adapt and improve themselves in married life can predict their marital commitment and satisfaction.

Facing the unknown crimes of older generations: Emotional and cognitive reactions of young Italian students reading an historical text on the colonial invasion of Ethiopia

When victims are weak and isolated, social denial of crimes committed against them is a banal and often long-lasting phenomenon. Nevertheless, reactions to the breaking of denial on past wrongdoings is a scarcely studied issue. This experimental study explores reactions of forty-two Italian university students, when exposed to historical information on colonial crimes committed by the Italian Army against Ethiopians. Before the experimental task, participants proved to be ignorant of these historical facts, up until now literaly denied in the Italian social discourse. The wording of a same historical text was manipulated in order to describe Italian colonial crimes either clearly (using words as “poisonous gas”) or in an implicit way (using words as “unconventional weapons”). When reading the historical text participants were unobtrusively observed. Immediately after reading the text and a week after reading it, participants self-assessed their cognitive and emotional reactions. A week after they self-assessed as well their self-conscious emotions of guilt, moral and social shame, their agreement with reparative actions, and their belief of the widespread social myth (Italiani Brava Gente, i.e. IBG) describing Italian people as good and harmless types . Results showed that 45.2 % of participants expressed primary negative emotions when reading. Participants exposed to the detailed text showed higher negative emotions and a higher level of moral shame. A week after reading, all participants unexpectedly showed a higher belief in IBG. A minority of participants declared to agree with reparative intentions; this agreement was associated with higher moral shame.

THE INFLUENCE OF GUILT AND PRIDE ON RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY

Purpose: While many consumers claim to include ethical considerations in their consumption behavior, only a small fraction adheres to these self-made standards. For example, although two thirds of consumers polled by Nielsen in 2015 in thirteen countries stated to be willing to pay more for sustainable brands only ten percent actually purchased this type of product. Even if responsibly produced products still only account for a small share of the market they represent a pervasive marketing phenomenon that merits further scientific research. The so-called attitude-behavior-gap has received a considerable amount of attention not only in the business context, but also in scientific marketing research. Nevertheless, previous studies commonly discussed responsible consumption from an information-processing perspective concentrating on the rational and goal-directed side of responsible consumption. What is still largely missing, though, is the consideration of emotions as drivers or influencing factors for consumer responsibility, even though the few existing studies suggest a positive influence. This holds especially true for the self-conscious emotions of guilt and pride. Furthermore, the few studies at hand generally focus on non-durable goods like tea, coffee or juice and leave a research gap with regard to durable products like fashion items. Thus, the aim of this study is to further investigate the influence of self-conscious emotions on responsible consumption in the context of the fashion industry. Specifically, the influence of the two emotions guilt and pride as well as the influence of social visibility on the consumer’s decision-making and purchasing process shall be investigated.Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach containing qualitative and quantitative methods is applied. While in-depth interviews and focus groups with fashion consumers shed light on potential influencing factors and outcomes of self-conscious emotions, a scenario-based experiment further validates these results on influence of guilt and pride in the context of responsible consumption. The experiment follows a 2 (negative vs. positive responsibility outcome) x 2 (social vs. no social visibility) design and is conducted via online questionnaires.Findings: Experiences of self-conscious emotions provide feedback on past behavior that ultimately leads to a revised behavior linked to consumer responsibility in the future. Specifically, pride (guilt) can potentially lead to increased (diminished) word-of-mouth and purchase intentions.Research limitations/implications: Limitations lie in the type of research design as a scenario-based experiment was chosen for the quantitative study. Future research should investigate the topic at hand with a field study, ideally with a suitable partner from the industry. Another limitation lies in the examination of only one industry that strongly differs from other industries. Further investigations should compare the self-conscious emotions’ impacts on different types of industries.Practical implications: The current research provides suggestions on the adequate use of communications to promote sustainable fashion brands and to develop according campaigns that elicit emotional reactions from consumers. Furthermore, although guilt and pride refer to past behavior, they can nevertheless be used by management to influence future consumer actions, e.g. choice of responsibly produced garments as opposed to conventional ones. Incentives for successful word-of-mouth of sustainable fashion brands could strengthen this effect. Additionally, the final results deliver insights on whether social visibility should be increased (e.g. through offerings in offline channels) or rather reduced (e.g. through promotions in online channels).Originality/value: This study closes a research gap by investigating consumer responsibility not from an information-processing, but an emotion-based perspective. It furthermore complements research on emotions in the context of responsible consumption by investigating durable products, namely fashion items, that differ strongly from previously examined product groups like tea or coffee.

On the Link between Perceived Parental Rearing Behaviors and Self-conscious Emotions in Adolescents

This study examined relationships between the self-conscious emotions of guilt and shame in both clinical (N = 104) and non-clinical (N = 477) (young) adolescents aged 11–18 years, who completed a questionnaire to assess perceived parental rearing behaviors (EMBU-C) and a scenario-based instrument to measure proneness to guilt and shame (SCEMAS). Results indicated that parental rearing dimensions were positively related to self-conscious emotions. Regarding the non-clinical sample, both favourable (emotional warmth) and unfavourable (rejection) paternal and maternal rearing dimensions were significant correlates of guilt- and shame-proneness. The results for the clinical sample were less conclusive: only maternal emotional warmth and rejection were found to be significantly associated with guilt and shame. Interestingly, no associations between any of the paternal rearing dimensions and self-conscious emotions emerged. Taken together, these results are in keeping with the notion that parental rearing factors are involved in the development of both adaptive and maladaptive self-conscious emotions in adolescents.

The effects of independent and interdependent self-construals on reactions to transgressions: distinguishing between guilt and shame

The self-conscious emotions of guilt and shame are commonly distinguished by the self-reflective processes that foster these emotions. Distinctions based on resulting behavioral reactions, however, have been questioned in recent studies highlighting the role of different self-motivations. The current work draws on the self-construal literature to further clarify the antecedents and consequences of guilt and shame. We hypothesized that conceptualizing the self as independent from (vs. interdependent with) others fosters behavior-related (vs. self-related) cognitions typically associated with guilt (vs. shame). Additionally, we predicted that the deleterious consequences of shame for externalizing blame are more characteristic of independent (vs. interdependent) selves. These hypotheses were supported across two studies that measured (Study 1) and primed (Study 2) self-construals. Overall, our results suggest that the cognitive reactions associated with guilt and shame are differently encouraged by independent and interdependent self-construals.

Guilt, shame, and psychopathology in children and adolescents.

The self-conscious emotions of guilt and shame are typically experienced in situations in which some moral standard is violated and this transgression is visible to other people [1]. While guilt and shame share similar features, evidence has accumulated indicating that both emotions also show some critical differences. That is, whereas guilt is concerned with a negative evaluation of a specific behavior (‘‘I did that wrong’’), shame pertains to a negative evaluation of the global self (‘‘I did that wrong’’). Thus, in guilt the person is feeling regret and remorse over the bad thing done, wishing that he had behaved differently, and thinking of how he could undo the harm. In contrast, shame is typically characterized by a feeling of inferiority and worthlessness, leading to a desire to escape or to disappear [1, 2]. These differences also become manifest in the functionality of both emotions: guilt motivates reparative behavior by making apologies and engaging in attempts to fix the situation, while shame motivates defensive and avoidance behavior, possibly serving as an innate mechanism of communicating submission [3]. Although guilt and shame primarily are functional and adaptive in nature, it has also become clear that some people display an excessive proneness to experience these self-conscious emotions, which means that they strongly dominate the person’s affective, cognitive and behavioral responding. In other individuals, guilt and shame are so weakly present that that their adaptive function is no longer realized, and so morally inacceptable behaviors are no longer corrected or repaired. Not surprisingly, such dysregulations of self-conscious emotions have been associated with various types of psychopathology. Research has shown that shame is positively related to a wide range of psychological problems including aggression, depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and personality pathology. The relation between guilt and psychopathology is more ambivalent, but in general the literature is indicating that this self-conscious emotion is only maladaptive when it is experienced in a ruminative way or fused with feelings of shame [1]. Otherwise, the prevailing notion is that guilt plays an important role in the development of empathy and conscience and thus prevents the occurrence of socially problematic behaviors such as aggression and delinquency [4]. So far most research on guilt and shame and psychopathology has been conducted in adult populations. In the meantime it is clear that rudimentary forms of these selfconscious emotions start to emerge during toddlerhood as a result of socialization processes and gradually develop and differentiate during further childhood as a result of cognitive maturation. Muris and Meesters [5] identified 22 studies that examined the relation between guilt and shame and psychological problems in children and adolescents. Overall, this research revealed a highly similar pattern of results as documented in the adult literature. That is, data generally indicated that shame was positively related to internalizing as well as externalizing symptoms, which confirms the notion that dysregulation of this self-conscious emotion should be viewed as a vulnerability factor for various types of psychopathology. In contrast, guilt was found to be negatively linked to externalizing symptoms, which is in keeping with the idea that this self-conscious emotion protects against the development of such problems. In spite of these encouraging results, Muris and Meesters concluded that ‘‘research on the relationships P. Muris (&) Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands e-mail: peter.muris@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Bound to Feel Bad About Oneself: Relations Between Attachment and the Self-conscious Emotions of Guilt and Shame in Children and Adolescents

Two cross-sectional studies were conducted to explore the relationship between attachment and the self-conscious emotions of guilt and shame in childhood. Study 1 was performed in non-clinical children aged 9–13 years (N = 688) who completed a single-item measure of attachment style and a vignette-based instrument for assessing guilt and shame. Results showed that children who classified themselves as insecurely attached displayed higher levels of shame and maladaptive types of guilt as compared to securely attached children. Study 2 was conducted in adolescents aged 12–18 years (N = 135), of whom the majority was referred to a clinical setting because of externalizing problems. Adolescents filled in a dimensional scale for measuring attachment quality to parents and peers and the above mentioned vignette-based instrument of guilt and shame. It was found that the clinical adolescents generally exhibited lower levels of self-conscious emotions as compared to non-clinical adolescents. Within this clinical group, communication to parents and peers was associated with higher levels of self-conscious emotions, and alienation was accompanied by higher levels of maladaptive forms of guilt and shame. Altogether, these results fit with the theory that attachment (in)security is involved in people’s proneness to experience self-conscious emotions.

Small or Big in the Eyes of the Other: On the Developmental Psychopathology of Self-Conscious Emotions as Shame, Guilt, and Pride

The self-conscious emotions of guilt, shame, and pride typically occur when people evaluate their own self through the eyes of another person. This article will first of all discuss the nature and function of self-conscious emotions, and describe their developmental course in children and adolescents. Then, a number of variables are discussed that are thought to increase young people's proneness to experience self-conscious emotions. Following this, the empirical evidence on the relationships between guilt, shame, and pride and various types of psychopathology in children and adolescents will be summarized. A model is presented to explain why these self-conscious emotions are associated with a diversity of psychopathological outcomes. Finally, recommendations for clinical practice are made in terms of assessment and interventions targeting the origins and sequelae of self-conscious emotions.