BACKGROUND People with drug and/or alcohol problems often experience feelings of shame and guilt, which have been associated with poorer recovery. Self-forgiveness has the potential to reduce these negative experiences. METHODS The current study tested theorized mediators (acceptance, conciliatory behavior, empathy) of the relationships between shame and guilt with self-forgiveness. A cross-s...

Guilt is widely recognized as an important self-regulatory emotion, yet alternative theoretical accounts view guilt primarily as either a punishment cue or a prosocial motivator. Integrating these views, we propose that guilt functions dynamically to first provide a negative reinforcement cue associated with reduced approach motivation, which transforms into approach-motivated behavior when an ...

In Study 1, participants completed five extant shame and guilt proneness inventories based on different theoretical conceptions of the difference between shame and guilt. Factor analyses revealed that despite very different theoretical distinctions, the shame proneness subscales loaded on one factor, and the guilt proneness subscales loaded on one factor. In Study 2, we altered scale items so t...

The present research explores the relationship between anticipated emotions and pro-environmental decision making comparing two differently valenced emotions: anticipated pride and guilt. In an experimental design, we examined the causal effects of anticipated pride versus guilt on pro-environmental decision making and behavioral intentions by making anticipated emotions (i.e. pride and guilt) ...

Feelings of shame and guilt are factors associated with depression. However, studies simultaneously investigating shame and guilt suggest that only shame has a strong unique effect, although it is not yet clear which psychological processes cause shame and not shame-free guilt to be related to depression. The authors hypothesized that shame, in contrast to guilt, elicits rumination, which then ...

The goal of this document is to provide a easier introduction to olympiad inequalities than the standard exposition Olympiad Inequalities, by Thomas Mildorf. I was motivated to write it by feeling guilty for getting free 7’s on problems by simply regurgitating a few tricks I happened to know, while other students were unable to solve the problem. Warning: These are notes, not a full handout. Lo...

Literature is replete with the never ending controversy about the role of guilt and hostility in depressive subjects. Feelings of guilt in depressive subjects have been found to be associated with shame as well as unworthiness over past sin and failures, (Redlich and Freedman, 1966). A subject matter of great concern has been the low incidence of guilt in non-occidental cultures. A large number...

Recent experiments suggest that people’s preferences not only depend on their choices but also on their beliefs of other people’s choices and on their beliefs of other people’s beliefs. Guilt aversion is such belief-dependent preference that has received a lot of attention recently. An individual is considered to be guilt averse if he gets a negative utility from failing to live up to the belie...

This study examined various psychometric properties of the items comprising the shame and guilt scales of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Adolescent (TOSCA-A) in a group children between 8 and 11 years of age. A total of 699 children (367 females and 332 males) completed these scales, and also measures of depression and empathy. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provided support for an obliq...

“A clear conscience is a good pillow.” Why does this old proverb contain an insight? The emotion of guilt holds a key. Psychologists report that “the prototypical cause of guilt would be the infliction of harm, loss, or distress on a relationship partner” (Roy Baumeister, Arlene M. Stillwell, and Todd F. Heatherton 1994, 245; June Price Tangney 1995). Moreover, guilt is unpleasant and may affec...