Self-conscious Emotions Research Articles

How the workplace usage of AI in China influences proactive behaviour? The role of pride and shame

ABSTRACT Based on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, we investigated the impact of AI usage on individuals’ positive and negative emotions as well as their proactive behaviour. Through a survey study conducted in China among 203 employees who have work experiences with AI with a one-month interval, we revealed the influence pathway between AI usage and proactive behaviour, which is mediated by two types of self-conscious emotions: pride and shame, and the satisfaction of competence need can moderate the relationship between AI usage and pride. The theoretical and implications of this study were discussed.

The effect of self-conscious emotions of guilt and regret on consumers’ intentions to reduce food waste

The study explores the role of guilt and regret in influencing consumers’ food waste intentions and behaviors in India. We conducted a longitudinal study spanning May–September 2022 and August–December 2023. Study 1 indicates a negative association between regret and the intention to reduce waste, while Study 2 found a positive association. Felt guilt significantly influenced the intention to reduce waste in both studies. This study aims to inform interventions and policies that promote sustainable consumption by uncovering the psychological factors influencing food waste. Waste reduction is consistently motivated by guilt in various restaurant settings, and the impact of regret improves over time. Based on our findings, it is evident that emotional responses are highly individualized, but various situational factors also influence consumer responses. This study highlights the need for customized interventions to address consumer emotions about food waste. Developing practical strategies that can effectively address emotional triggers, increase consumer awareness, and close the gap between intention and behavior is essential. By considering our findings, stakeholders can develop impactful campaigns and policies that encourage sustainable food practices and reduce waste, thereby cultivating a more sustainable food system.

Mindfulness for test anxiety and negative self-evaluation in high school

There is growing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions reduce test anxiety in university-level students, but less is known about high school students. Adolescence is a time of frequent testing, identity concerns, and increases in self-conscious emotions. We hypothesized that test anxiety would be associated with negative self-referential thinking (negative self-thinking, study 1) and that Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) would reduce test anxiety, negative self-thinking, and self-judgment (study 2). 455 high school students (M age = 17.1 years (SD = 1.07), 43.2% female) reported their test anxiety and negative self-thinking in a cross-sectional study (study 1) and 33 high school students (mean age = 17.5 years (SD = 1.60, 88% female) reported measures at the pre-, post, and one-year follow-up during an 8-week MBSR course (study 2). Test anxiety was positively related to negative self-thinking (study 1). Test anxiety and self-judgment were reduced after participating in MBSR and remained low one year after (study 2). Negative self-thinking was not reduced during the intervention. MBSR seems promising in reducing test anxiety and self-judgment in adolescents and might increase awareness of negative self-thinking, perhaps also reducing the impact of such thoughts by encouraging observation of the thoughts as “events in the mind” rather than facts. Mindfulness training seems promising for reducing test anxiety in high school, but results need to be replicated in larger samples with a control group.

Assessing Affective Dimensions of the Interpersonal Circumplex: Development and Validation of the Interpersonal Emotion Inventory

Interpersonal emotions are feelings distinctively associated with real or imagined interpersonal situations. We propose that interpersonal emotions can be organized within the same circumplex used by contemporary integrative interpersonal theory to organize other aspects of interpersonal functioning. Our research explores the affective dimensions underpinning the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) and maps distinct emotional dispositions using coordinates for agentic and communal affect. Our aim is to provide a better differentiated and more comprehensive taxonomy of interpersonal emotions consistent with the IPC framework. In an initial development study (N = 1223 undergraduates) we used circumplex and psychometric criteria to create a 64-item Interpersonal Emotion Inventory (IEI), a novel self-report measure of interpersonal emotions reflecting each IPC octant. We then tested the structural properties and utility of the IEI in a preregistered validation study (N = 278 community participants). Across both studies, the IEI scales exhibited good fit to a two-dimensional circular model. The IEI demonstrated robust convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity in relation to measures of interpersonal values and problems, positive and negative affect, adult attachment, self-conscious emotions, self-esteem, and facets of narcissism. By complementing existing measures of affect and interpersonal phenomena, the IEI should prove useful in both research and clinical contexts.

Are self-conscious emotions about the self? Testing competing theories of shame and guilt across two disparate cultures.

The emotions of guilt and shame play major roles in forgiveness, social exclusion, face-saving ploys, suicide, and honor killings. Understanding these emotions is thus of vital importance. The outputs of guilt and shame are already well understood: Guilt motivates amends; shame motivates evasion. However, the elicitors and functions of these emotions are disputed. According to attributional theory, guilt and shame are intrapersonal emotions elicited when negative outcomes are attributed to controllable/unstable (guilt) or uncontrollable/stable (shame) aspects of the self. By contrast, functionalist theory claims that guilt and shame are interpersonal emotions for minimizing the imposition of harm on valued others (guilt) and the cost of reputational damage on the self (shame). Although there is confirmatory evidence consistent with both theories, evidence ostensibly supporting one theory has been argued to actually support the other. To solve this problem of data interpretation, here we report contrastive critical tests of the two theories performed on online participant pools in the United States and India in 2021 (N = 853). Results in both countries support functionalist theory over attributional theory, suggesting that the intrapersonal effects reported in the emotion literature are tributary or incidental to the interpersonal functions of guilt and shame. Functionalist theory presents a promising framework for understanding the interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of guilt, shame, and other self-conscious emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-Conscious Emotions in the Workplace: When are Good Emotions Bad and Bad Emotions Good?

Self-Conscious Emotions in the Workplace: When are Good Emotions Bad and Bad Emotions Good?

The Centrality of Humiliation in Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

ABSTRACT Victims of traumatic events that involve repeated interpersonal aggression and low or no chance of escape frequently report intense Self-Conscious Emotions (SCEs), such as Shame, Guilt, and Humiliation. Humiliation is the reaction to a forced loss of status and is hypothesized to have unique contributions to the development and maintenance of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD). However, previous studies did not include humiliation or did not simultaneously probe the relative contribution of each SCE to posttraumatic symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the dynamics between specific SCEs and trauma-related symptomatology in the general population who suffered a form of complex trauma. Four hundred forty-nine people (77.11% women) exposed to domestic violence and sexual abuse answered an online survey. We investigated whether each emotion would accurately predict probable PTSD and CPTSD levels above the proposed cutoff. We estimated a network model to understand the dynamics of their interactions and whether the traumatic event type would moderate relationships between SCEs and posttraumatic stress symptoms, comparing networks of two types of complex trauma. No SCE predicted PTSD, but humiliation was a predictor of CPTSD while controlling for Shame and Guilt. Humiliation was also the most central SCE domain in the networks of both traumatic events. Our results stress the relevance of Humiliation to understanding posttraumatic stress symptoms and the necessity to consider humiliation when studying the emotional processing in complex trauma.

Suicidal Ideation Among Male Victim-Survivors of Financial Sextortion

ABSTRACT Financial sextortion is a specific form of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) in which an offender threatens to publicly distribute a victim’s intimate images or videos unless the victim pays a ransom to the offender. While other forms of IBSA predominately impact women, financial sextortion is unique in that adult men and minor boys are most at risk for victimization. Incidents of financial sextortion have increased globally in the last five years, yet there is limited empirical research on the psychological outcomes for victim-survivors. However, recent media reports highlight several tragic cases in which financial sextortion victims, especially minor boys, have taken their own lives in response to these coercive scams. The purpose of this study is to understand the prevalence and predictors of suicidal thoughts and ideation among male victims of financial sextortion. Using a sample of 215 victim-survivors of financial sextortion, the results indicate that suicidal thoughts are common for this group. In addition, victims who experience concurrent self-conscious emotions (such as shame, guilt, embarrassment, and humiliation) and hypersensitivity are more likely to endorse suicidal ideation. The results also indicate that among participants who do endorse suicidal ideation, depressed mood significantly predicted severity of suicidal thoughts.

How sexual objectification marks the brain: fMRI evidence of self-objectification and its harmful emotional consequences

Female Sexual Objectification refers to perceiving and treating women based on their body appearance. This phenomenon may serve as a precursor for dysfunctional behaviors, particularly among females prone to self-objectification and experiencing shame emotions. Understanding this challenging trajectory by disclosing its neural consequences may be crucial for comprehending extreme psychopathological outcomes. However, investigations in this sense are still scarce. The present study explores the neural correlates of female participants' experiences of being objectified and their relationship with self-objectification, emotional responses and individual dispositions in self-esteem, emotion regulation abilities and self-conscious emotion proneness. To this aim, 25 female participants underwent an fMRI experimental session while they were exposed to interpersonal encounters with objectifying or non-objectifying men. Participants’ experienced emotions and levels of attention shifted toward their bodies (self-objectification) was reported after each interaction. The results revealed increased brain activity in objectifying contexts, impacting cortical (frontal, occipital and temporal cortex) and subcortical regions (thalamus, and hippocampus) involved in visual, emotion, and social processing. Remarkably, the inferior temporal gyrus emerged as a crucial neural hub associated in opposite ways with self-esteem and the self-conscious emotion of shame, highlighting its role in self-referential processing during social dynamics. This study points out the importance of adopting a neuroscientific perspective for a deeper understanding of sexual objectification, and to shed light on its possible neural consequences.

The Influence Of Individualism On The Specificity Of Emotion Concepts Esc Pride And Germ. Stolz: Corpus-Based Analysis

A self-conscious emotion of pride is viewed in the proposed article as a complex concept comprising the meanings of authentic, hubristic, and collective pride. It has been revealed that the specificity of cross-cultural expression and perception of this concept is to some extent influenced by the level of individualism serving as one of the criteria for culture classification. Different level of individualism in such related cultures as German and English-speaking cultures (ESC) served as the basis for the hypothesis that the emotion concept (EC) PRIDE in ESC (1) may be perceived more positively and (2) may contain more intensive meanings than Germ. STOLZ due to the fact that the level of individualism in the ESC is higher than German. Аs a result, their pride is more “individualistic”, i.e. it is more oriented towards an individual’s interests and needs bringing them more pleasure.

Development of the Japanese Version of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 (TOSCA-3): A Study among Student and Parent Population.

The Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 (TOSCA-3) is a scenario-based measure of self-conscious emotions. We aimed to create an abridged version of the TOSCA-3 that is appropriate for Japanese populations and has a good fit with the data, as well as validate its subscales. The TOSCA-3 was distributed to (a) a university student population (n = 512: Study 1) and (b) a parent population (n = 260: Study 2). In both studies, items with factor loading < 0.33 were deleted one by one to select culturally appropriate scenarios for each of the six domains of self-conscious emotions. In Study 1, self-conscious emotions were correlated with the other correlates. Most of the final models showed a good fit with the data. In Study 1, the six domains of self-conscious emotions showed correlations with depression and related items, dispositional coping styles, experiences in childhood, ego function, borderline and narcissistic personality traits, and adult attachment styles, almost in the expected fashions. The TOSCA-3 is a useful tool to measure self-conscious emotions among Japanese student and parent populations if a few culturally inappropriate scenarios are deleted.

The Contribution of Shame to Eating Disorder Treatment Outcomes in a Community Mental Health Clinic.

Shame is a powerful self-conscious emotion that is often experienced by individuals with eating disorders (EDs). While the association between EDs and shame is well-established, there is limited research investigating the contribution of pre-treatment shame to clinical outcomes. Participants (N = 273) received outpatient cognitive-behavioral therapy for eating disorders (CBT-ED). We investigated pre-treatment shame as a predictor of dropout and as a moderator of change in ED psychopathology and clinical impairment from pre-treatment to post-treatment. We also explored the potentially moderating roles of body mass index, ED diagnostic category, and co-occurring anxiety and depression diagnoses. Shame improved substantially (d = 1.28) despite not being explicitly targeted in treatment. Pre-treatment shame did not predict treatment dropout. Individuals high in shame started and ended treatment with higher ED symptoms and impairment than those with low shame. The contribution of pre-treatment shame on the degree of change in symptoms/impairment depended critically on whether analyses controlled for pre-treatment symptoms/impairment. When those were controlled, high pre-treatment shame was associated with substantially less improvement in ED symptoms and impairment. There was some evidence that ED diagnosis and co-occurring depressive diagnoses may moderate the relationship between shame and treatment outcome. Changes in shame were positively associated with changes in ED symptoms and clinical impairment. A high level of shame at pre-treatment is not a contraindication for CBT-ED as good therapeutic outcomes can be achieved. However, outcomes may be enhanced among individuals high in shame by offering adjunctive interventions that explicitly target shame.

The impact of self-conscious emotions on the continuance intention of digital voice assistants in private and public contexts

Digital voice assistants (DVAs) are application programs that can understand and interpret natural language voice commands. They are embedded in various products like smartphones and smart speakers and have thus become integral in everyday life, interpersonal communications, and social relationships. Despite users tend to humanize DVAs, emotions that arise in interpersonal interactions such as self-conscious emotions (i.e., pride, shame, guilt, and vicarious embarrassment) and their influence on human-machine interaction remain unstudied. Grounding on regulatory focus theory, we argue that these emotions are fundamental for promoting or preventing future DVA use. Additionally, drawing on social influence theory, we contend that the influence of self-conscious emotions on continuous DVA use varies across specific usage situations. Thus, we extend the expectation-confirmation model with self-conscious emotions and empirically compare user reactions between different social scenarios (alone and with friends in private vs. public places). Analyzing 860 DVA user responses through structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis, our findings reveal that pride consistently positively influences continuance intention across all social contexts. Furthermore, shame acts as an important inhibitor of continuance intentions in public, while guilt inhibits continuance intentions in private places. Vicarious embarrassment, however, does not exhibit significant effects in any scenario. These results carry valuable implications for both research and management in understanding and optimizing DVA user experiences.

Treatment Motivation among Patients with Substance Use Disorder and Its Relation with Self-Conscious Emotions and Self-Forgiveness

Treatment Motivation among Patients with Substance Use Disorder and Its Relation with Self-Conscious Emotions and Self-Forgiveness

Are all emotions social? Embracing a pluralistic understanding of social emotions

While the importance of social emotions is widely recognized, the question whether all emotions are social and what this would mean for the category ‘social emotions’ is yet to be addressed systematically. Emotion theorists and researchers so far have proposed different candidates for social emotions. These include non-basic emotions, self-conscious emotions, higher-cognitive emotions, and defining social emotions via their social functions. This paper looks at these different candidates for social emotions and briefly discusses their issues. Discussing the candidates and their issues motivates embracing a pluralistic approach to social emotions. In a further step, the paper will look at approaches exploring how social factors impact emotions in general. This serves as a basis for explaining what it would mean to propose that all emotions are social. After reviewing different candidates for social emotions and looking at the impact of social factors on emotions in general, the paper will propose that a pluralistic understanding of social emotions is needed to embrace the different ways in which social emotions may function. Embracing a pluralistic understanding of social emotions does not mean, however, that all emotions are social emotions.

Moral foundations, moral emotions, and moral distress in NICU nurses.

Background: Moral distress is common in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between NICU nurses' moral foundations, moral emotions, and moral distress. Research design and method: This is an observational cross-sectional self-report questionnaire study. Participants and research context: One hundred and forty-two (24%) of 585 Level 3-4 NICU nurses completed pen-and-paper self-report measures of moral foundations (harm, fairness, ingroup, authority, and purity) (Moral Foundations Questionnaire-20), proneness to self-conscious moral emotions (guilt and shame) (modified Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2), and moral distress (futile care, compromised care, and untruthful care) (modified Revised Moral Distress Scale). Ethical considerations: Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The ethics committees of the participating hospitals approved the study protocol (HREC Reference: LNR/18/SCHN/316). Results: Non-parametric statistical analyses showed medium to large correlations between moral foundations and moral emotions. Moral foundations and moral emotions had trivial to small correlations with moral distress. Using a liberal p-value of <.10 for statistical significance because of the small sample size, harm (rs = 0.22) and fairness (rs = 0.16) predicted futile care, ingroup predicted compromised care (rs = 0.19) and untruthful care (rs = 0.15), and purity predicted untruthful care (rs = 0.15). Guilt-proneness predicted futile care (rs = 0.15). Shame-proneness did not predict moral distress. Conclusion: The correlations between moral foundations and moral emotions were significant. Moral foundations and guilt-proneness predicted one or more dimensions of moral distress. The smaller than expected effect sizes may have been owing to how moral foundations, moral emotions, and moral distress were conceptualized and measured, or to moral disengagement, including NICU nurses' possible reluctance to countenance aversive but morally warranted feelings of guilt and especially shame. Understanding the nature of these relationships may complement the efforts of NICU administrators, educators, counsellors, and nurses themselves to mitigate moral distress.

Measuring Shame Related to Sexual Orientation: Validation of Sexual Minority—External and Internal Shame Scale (SM-EISS)

Abstract Introduction Shame is a self-conscious emotion involving negative self-evaluations, being a transdiagnostic factor for psychopathology. Due to stigma and discrimination experiences related to having a minority sexual orientation, LGB+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other minority sexual orientations) people report higher levels of general shame than heterosexual people. To our knowledge, there is no specific measure of shame related to sexual orientation. This study aimed to develop and explore the psychometric properties of the Sexual Minority—External and Internal Shame Scale (SM-EISS) in a sample of Portuguese LGB+ people. Method The sample was recruited online between December 2021 and January 2022 and comprised 200 Portuguese LGB+ people (Mage = 27.8 ± 8.9) who completed measures about shame, proximal minority stressors, and mental health. Results Good psychometric characteristics were found for a second-order two-factor structure (general, external, and internal shame related to sexual orientation), with the SM-EISS demonstrating good reliability and validity values. Conclusion The SM-EISS seems to be a valid and reliable instrument to assess shame related to sexual orientation among LGB+ people and may be beneficial in clinical and research contexts. Policy Implications Measuring shame related to sexual orientation experienced by LGB+ people could enhance the clinical understanding of this population. It can help researchers and clinicians to better understand this emotion and how it affects LGB+ people’s mental health and well-being. The research has important implications for clinical practice, social interventions, and public policies to protect LGB+ people’s rights. This is especially relevant in Portugal, where, despite positive legal developments, LGB+ people continue to experience harmful situations that negatively impact their mental health.

Emotion in Motion: Weight Bias Internalization, Exercise Avoidance, and Fitness-Related Self-Conscious Emotions.

Weight bias internalization (WBI), the process of internalizing negative attitudes and stereotypes towards overweight individuals, significantly impacts self-worth and health behaviors, such as exercise avoidance. In the current study, we focused on the mediating role of fitness-related self-conscious emotions, particularly shame and guilt. A cross-sectional study involving 150 self-described overweight Dutch women (age M = 49.63 ± 10.72) was conducted online. Participants completed measures assessing weight bias internalization, exercise avoidance, and body/fitness-related self-conscious emotions. Data were analyzed using linear regression and mediation analysis, controlling for age, BMI, and exercise frequency. The results show that weight bias internalization, guilt-free shame, and shame-free guilt uniquely predict exercise avoidance. Guilt-free shame partially mediated the relationship between weight bias internalization and exercise avoidance, indicating that increased internalized weight bias led to higher levels of guilt-free shame, which in turn contributed to exercise avoidance. Shame-free guilt did not act as a unique mediator. These findings underscore the importance of addressing weight bias internalization and fitness-related self-conscious emotions, particularly guilt-free shame, in interventions targeting exercise avoidance among overweight individuals. Strategies promoting self-compassion and reducing shame may prove beneficial in improving exercise behaviors and overall well-being.

교육대학생의 체육실기수업 스트레스가 운동지속의도에 미치는 영향: 신체상 자의식 감정의 조절효과 검증

교육대학생의 체육실기수업 스트레스가 운동지속의도에 미치는 영향: 신체상 자의식 감정의 조절효과 검증

Typology of Parent-to-Child Emotions: A Study of Japanese Parents of a Foetus up to a 12-Year-Old Child.

Background: Emotions are the fundamental origin of parent-child bonding, which is measurable by the Scale for Parent-to-Child Emotions (SPCE) based on the theories of basic and self-conscious emotions. Methods: This study is based on the data from a cross-sectional study that we previously reported. The data consist of fathers and mothers who had a child/children, whose eldest child's age was at the foetal stage up to 12 years old, and were recruited via the Internet (N = 4600). A series of cluster analyses using factor scores (theta[Ө]s) of all domains of the SPCE were conducted. After the clusters emerged, the fathers and mothers allocated to each cluster were compared by the child's age stage. The validation of the classifications was also conducted using ANOVAs and chi-squared tests. A discriminant function analysis was conducted. Results: The participant mothers and fathers were classified into Cluster 1 (Lack of Bonding Emotions, n = 509), Cluster 2 (Bonding Disorder, n = 1471), Cluster 3 (Ambivalent Bonding Emotions, n = 1211), and Cluster 4 (Positive Bonding, n = 1409). Across the four clusters, there were no differences in the age of the parents or the gender of the child. During the second trimester, mothers made up the majority of Cluster 4 (Positive Bonding), totalling 81 cases (37.5%), whereas fathers made up the majority of Cluster 2 (Bonding Disorder), totalling 126 cases (60.0%). The three linear discriminants (LDs) well predicted the four clusters, and their functions showed cross validation. Conclusions: The typology of the SPCE is helpful to understand individual differences in terms of parental emotional bonding.