The influence of feelings of shame originating from marital breakdown on suicidality is examined. The role of mental health problems as probable mediating factors is also considered. Internalized shame, state (related to separation) shame, and mental health problems were significantly correlated with the score for suicidality during separation in both genders. Tested structural equation model i...

BACKGROUND Nationally, HIV incidence is rising rapidly among young (18-24 years old) men who have sex with men (YMSM). Knowledge of safer sex generally enhances self-efficacy for safer sex, an important predictor of safer-sex behaviors. Recent findings suggest that a strong negative social emotion (i.e., shame) increases YMSM's sexual risk-taking. Unchangeable shame (e.g., desire for other men)...

Shame is a common, although understudied, reaction to trauma. It is associated with numerous negative outcomes after trauma including emotional distress and health problems. Using a mixed experimental and correlational design, this study explored the association between trauma exposure, negative underlying assumptions (NUAs; attitudes such as “If I make a mistake, it means I am a bad person”), ...

An increased clinical interest in shame has been reflected in the growing number of research studies in this area. However, clinically orientated empirical investigation has mostly been restricted to the investigation of individual differences in dispositional shame. This study reviews recent work on dispositional shame but then argues that the primacy of this construct has been problematic in ...

This paper outlines a theory of hidden shame as the cause of depression, and the rudiments of a treatment plan. It builds upon earlier studies of shame, especially the work of the psychoanalystpsychologist Helen Block Lewis. The theory concerns the cybernetics of emotion: recursive shame-based spirals may be the basic mechanism of both minor and clinical depression. Shame/fear, shame/shame, and...