Integrating Guilt and Shame into the Self-Concept: The Influence of Future Opportunities.

This study explored the integration of guilt and shame experiences into the self-concept, focusing on how perceived future opportunities affect this process. The participants in Study 1 (N = 201) and Study 2 (N = 221) recalled experiences that elicited either guilt or shame and that they believed could occur again in the future (i.e., repeatable) or could not (i.e., non-repeatable). The results showed that when the participants viewed an event as repeatable, suggesting that future opportunities for change were possible, they were more likely to accept and integrate the experiences associated with guilt than with shame. This difference disappeared when the target event was non-repeatable, thereby providing no future opportunities for change. Study 2 further demonstrated the moderating role of future coping confidence in the relationship between the interaction effect of emotion type and event repeatability on self-integration. These findings underscore the different roles of guilt and shame in identity development and intrapersonal learning.

Dimensions of Depressive Symptoms in Young Children: Factor Analysis of the Preschool Feelings Checklist-Scale.

The current study is an investigation of the dimensionality of the Preschool Feelings Checklist-Scale (PFC-S), a caregiver-report questionnaire of early childhood depressive symptom severity. Caregivers of 450 young children, ages 3-8 years (M = 5.62, SD = 0.95; 49% female; 7% Hispanic; 66% White), completed the PFC-S and questionnaires on child emotion regulation and expression and self-reported depressive symptomatology. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a one-factor structure did not adequately fit the current PFC-S data. Using exploratory factor analysis, a three-factor structure emerged as interpretable and structurally sound, yielding reliable factors related to social and behavioral anhedonia, emotional and behavioral dysregulation, and excessive guilt and sadness. This factor structure showed configural and scalar invariance across preschool-aged and early middle childhood-aged children as well as children assigned male and female sex at birth. Correlations between the three factors and constructs related to depression suggested preliminary construct validity. The current study provides initial evidence for a multidimensional structure of the PFC-S and improves our understanding of early childhood depressive symptoms.

Two Sides of the Same Coin in Female Borderline Personality Disorder: Self-Reported Guilt and Shame and Their Neurofunctional Correlates.

OBJECTIVE: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) report to be especially prone to social emotions like shame and guilt. At the same time, these emotions seem to play an important role in BPD pathology. The present study aimed to deepen the knowledge about the processes behind shame and guilt in patients with BPD. METHODS: Twenty patients with BPD and twenty healthy controls (HCs) took part in an experiment that induced shame and guilt by imagining scenarios during scanning using functional brain imaging. Participants also filled out self-report questionnaires and took part in diagnostic interviews. RESULTS: BPD patients reported more proneness to guilt but not to shame than the HCs. There was no difference in the self-reported intensity rating of experimentally induced emotions between the groups. Between-group contrast of neural signals in the shame condition revealed a stronger activation of cingulate and fusiform gyrus for the BPD patients compared to the controls, and a more pronounced activation in the lingual gyrus and cuneus for the HCs. In the guilt condition, activation in the caudate nucleus, the fusiform gyrus, and the posterior cingulate cortex was stronger in BPD patients, while HC showed stronger activations in cuneus, lingual gyrus, and fronto-temporal regions. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in the neuro-functional processes between BPD patients and HC were found, even though the two groups did not differ in their self-report of subjective proneness to guilt and emotional intensity of shame and guilt during the experiment. While the HCs may be engaged more by the emotional scenarios themselves, the BPD patients may be more occupied with cognitive regulatory and self-referential processing.

Virtual reality-assessment of social interactions and prognosis in depression.

BACKGROUND: Freud proposed that excessive self-blame-related motivations such as self-punishing tendencies play a key role in depression. Most of the supporting evidence, however, is based on cross-sectional studies and questionnaire measures. METHODS: In this pre-registered (NCT04593537) study, we used a novel Virtual Reality (VR) task to determine whether maladaptive self-blame-related action tendencies prospectively identify a subgroup of depression with poor prognosis when treated as usual over four months in primary care. Ninety-eight patients with depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 ≥ 15), screening negatively for bipolar and alcohol/substance use disorders, completed the VR-task at baseline (n = 93 completed follow-up). RESULTS: Our pre-registered statistical/machine learning model prospectively predicted a cross-validated 19 % of variance in depressive symptoms. Contrary to our specific predictions, and in accordance with Freud's observations, feeling like punishing oneself emerged as prognostically relevant rather than feeling like hiding or creating a distance from oneself. Using a principal components analysis of all pre-registered continuous measures, a factor most strongly loading on feeling like punishing oneself for other people's wrongdoings (ß = 0.23, p = 0.01), a baseline symptom factor (ß = 0.30, p = 0.006) and Maudsley Staging Method treatment-resistance scores (ß = 0.28, p = 0.009) at baseline predicted higher depressive symptoms after four months. LIMITATIONS: Patients were not assessed with a diagnostic interview. CONCLUSIONS: Independently and apart from known clinical variables, feeling like punishing oneself emerged as a distinctly relevant prognostic factor and should therefore be assessed and tackled in personalised care pathways for difficult-to-treat depression.

Vortex of regret: How positive and negative coping strategies correlate with feelings of guilt.

Bad coping behavior and guilt may reinforce each other as a negative feedback loop. Social contexts and expectations may also create cognitive dissonance in coping individuals and affect the effectiveness of coping styles. This study examines the associations between the feeling of guilt and specific coping styles belonging to both groups of positive and negative coping styles. We conducted Bayesian Multiple Regression analyses on secondary data from 3784 high school students in China. Positive coping is associated more with reduced feelings of guilt compared to negative coping. However, some positive coping styles were found to be positively associated with a sense of guilt, especially those involving confrontation against or conformity to social expectations. Most negative coping styles are positively associated with guilt, and substance use has the strongest influence among the examined negative coping styles. The findings suggest that the consideration of sociocultural contexts is very important in supporting those with guilt issues, especially adolescents in societies with dominant traditional East Asian values.

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.

The nonverbal expression of guilt in healthy adults.

Guilt is a negative emotion elicited by realizing one has caused actual or perceived harm to another person. One of guilt's primary functions is to signal that one is aware of the harm that was caused and regrets it, an indication that the harm will not be repeated. Verbal expressions of guilt are often deemed insufficient by observers when not accompanied by nonverbal signals such as facial expression, gesture, posture, or gaze. Some research has investigated isolated nonverbal expressions in guilt, however none to date has explored multiple nonverbal channels simultaneously. This study explored facial expression, gesture, posture, and gaze during the real-time experience of guilt when response demands are minimal. Healthy adults completed a novel task involving watching videos designed to elicit guilt, as well as comparison emotions. During the video task, participants were continuously recorded to capture nonverbal behaviour, which was then analyzed via automated facial expression software. We found that while feeling guilt, individuals engaged less in several nonverbal behaviours than they did while experiencing the comparison emotions. This may reflect the highly social aspect of guilt, suggesting that an audience is required to prompt a guilt display, or may suggest that guilt does not have clear nonverbal correlates.

Empowering pro-environmental behavior in tourists through digital media: the influence of eco-guilt and empathy with nature.

In the digital economy era, leveraging digital media to foster tourists' pro-environmental behavioral intention (TPEBI) has become crucial in the field of sustainable tourism. While existing studies have mainly focused on the driving mechanism of TPEBI within physical tourism contexts, the correlation between digital media information sharing and TPEBI remains unclear. Our study employs the cognitive-affective-conative framework to construct a theoretical model, considering eco-guilt and empathy with nature as mediating variables. It aims to explore the influencing mechanism of destination environmental information sharing through digital media on TPEBI from a presence perspective. Thereby, two scenario experiments were designed: Study 1 examined the impact of different formats of destination environmental threat information presentation on digital media on the sense of presence, while Study 2 explored the influencing mechanism of presence on TPEBI based on the conclusions of Study 1. Results indicate that (1) vivid and visible presentation formats of destination environmental threat information on digital media enhance individuals' sense of presence; (2) sense of presence positively influences TPEBI; and (3) eco-guilt and empathy with nature mediate between presence and TPEBI. These findings not only contribute to theoretical and empirical research on digital media information sharing in sustainable tourism but also offer guidance for governments and tourism destinations to effectively stimulate TPEBI through digital media, achieve the sustainable development of destinations.

A latent profile analysis of moral emotions following moral transgressions.

OBJECTIVE: Moral transgressions (MTs), events that violate one's moral code, are associated with the moral emotions of guilt and shame. However, there may be different patterns by which people experience guilt and shame that affect distress following MTs. METHOD: Undergraduates (N = 1371) exposed to an MT completed self-report assessments. This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine profiles based on guilt cognitions, internalized shame, and distress in relation to a reported MT. Cognitive flexibility, years since the MT, and deliberate and intrusive rumination were examined as variables to determine how these factors predicted profile membership. RESULTS: Results from the LPA revealed a three-profile solution: a low moral distress profile (n = 1002), a moderate moral distress profile (n = 262), and a shame prominent profile (n = 107). Results indicated that higher levels of deliberate and intrusive rumination and lower levels of cognitive flexibility significantly increased the likelihood of belonging to the moderate moral distress or shame prominent profiles compared to the low moral distress profile. Higher levels of intrusive rumination and lower levels of cognitive flexibility also significantly increased the likelihood of belonging to the shame prominent profile over the moderate distress profile. CONCLUSION: Three different profiles emerged, with the shame prominent profile being driven primarily by internalized shame. Results suggest that intrusive rumination and cognitive inflexibility are risk factors to experiencing adverse responses to MTs.

Shame, guilt, and drinking motives as mediators between child maltreatment and problematic alcohol use in college students.

Objective: Drinking for emotion regulation may be a concern for college students who have experienced childhood maltreatment, due to high levels of shame and guilt. The present cross-sectional survey study tested how trait shame-proneness, trait guilt-proneness, and trauma-related guilt are differently related to drinking motives and how these pathways mediate the links between maltreatment severity and alcohol outcomes. Participants: Undergraduate student drinkers (n = 464; M age = 19.50, SD = 2.20) from a midsized midwestern University. Methods: Participants completed an online survey inquiring about demographics, childhood maltreatment, shame, guilt, drinking motives, alcohol use, and alcohol-related consequences. Results: There were several significant serial indirect effects of maltreatment on alcohol consumption and related consequences, through trauma-related guilt, shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, drinking-to-cope, and drinking for mood enhancement. Conclusions: On college campuses, to address problematic drinking among childhood maltreatment survivors, interventions may target maladaptive feelings of shame and guilt stemming from trauma exposure.

Interpersonal helping in the workplace: social expectation predicts anticipated guilt and intention to help a coworker.

Promoting interpersonal helping among coworkers is an important aim for any organisation that cares about employee well-being. Drawing on guilt aversion hypothesis, this research focuses on the power of social expectations in promoting prosocial behaviour among employees and investigates the role of anticipated guilt for failing to meet coworkers' expectations. In two preregistered studies, the effect of beneficiary expectation on benefactors' anticipated guilt and intention to help was investigated. In Study 1, Japanese participants (n = 284) recalled a situation when they helped a coworker spontaneously, and evaluated perceived beneficiary expectation to receive help, as well as anticipated guilt for not helping. Beneficiary expectation positively predicted anticipated guilt, and the effect was stronger when the beneficiary was a same-status colleague, and when interpersonal helping frequency in the organisation was low. Study 2 (n = 499) employed vignettes and manipulated beneficiary expectation. A mediational model revealed that beneficiary expectation leads to more anticipated guilt for not helping, which, in turn, increases employees' intention to help. Together, these studies show that employees are sensitive to their coworkers' expectations, and guilt-averse; therefore, interpersonal helping among employees may be promoted by establishing legitimate expectations of prosociality in the workplace.

Internalized Sexual Stigma and Mental Health Outcomes for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Asian Americans: The Moderating Role of Guilt and Shame.

The literature unequivocally demonstrates that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals experience disproportionate mental health and social wellbeing impacts. Here, we respond to recent calls for research in the field of sexual minority health to better understand why various overlapping and intersecting identities can further drive health disparities. In this paper, we focus on the specific intersections of ethnicity and sexuality for Asian LGB individuals and the role of internalized stigma in driving poorer mental health outcomes for this group. We recruited 148 LGB Asian participants residing in the United States (Mage = 22.82 years, SD = 4.88) to participate in our online cross-sectional survey in which we collected data on their internalized stigma, levels of guilt and shame about their sexuality, and measures of depression, anxiety, and distress. Contrary to our predictions, there were no bivariate relationships between internalized sexual stigma and any of the mental health outcomes. However, a parallel mediation analysis revealed that guilt, but not shame, mediates the relationship between internalized sexual stigma and all mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, and stress) for LGB Asian American individuals. This research highlights the important of exploring additional variables that may exacerbate of protect against poor mental health for individuals with multiple intersecting identities.

Treating Guilt-Inducing Self-Talk in Ocd with Dramatized Socratic Dialogue: A Step by Step Intervention.

Objective: Fear of moral guilt and conseque:nt increased attention to personal actions and intentions are the main ingredients of the self-criticism in patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This pathogenic attitude takes shape in a typical guilt-inducing self-talk.The purpose of this work is to describe in detail a novel cognitive therapeutic procedure for OCD called "Dramatized Socratic Dialogue" (DSD). Method: DSD is a theory-oriented intervention that combine elements of Socratic dialogue, chairwork, and cognitive acceptance strategies derived from Mancini's model, which posits that obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms stem from a fear of deontological guilt. Results: DSD appears to have many strengths, being a theory-oriented treatment and focusing, as a therapeutic target, on the cognitive structures that determine pathogenic processes and OC symptoms. Furthermore, it is a short, flexible and tailor-made intervention. Conclusions: Detailed description of the intervention could foster future research perspectives and thus be used in evidence-based effectiveness studies to establish whether DSD reduces OC symptoms and to investigate its mechanism of action.

Guilt and Shame in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders.

INTRODUCTION: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a tremendous psychiatric illness with a variety of severe symptoms. Feelings of shame and guilt are universal social emotions that fundamentally shape the way people interact with each other. Mental illness is therefore often related to pronounced feelings of shame and guilt in a maladaptive form. METHODS: A total of 62 participants (38 women and 24 men) were clinically and psychometrically investigated. RESULTS: The OCD patients (n = 31) showed a maladaptive guilt and shame profile, characterized by increased interpersonal feelings of guilt accompanied by a stronger tendency to self-criticism and increased punitive sense of guilt with a simultaneous prevailing tendency to perfectionism, as well as an increased concern for the suffering of others. The proneness to profuse shame in OCD patients seems to be in the context of the violation of inner values and a negative self-image with persistent self-criticism. CONCLUSION: Although there are limitations with a small sample size in this monocentric approach, our study underlines the importance of an individual consideration of the leading obsessive-compulsive symptomatology, especially in the context of very personal feelings of guilt and shame. Further multidimensional studies on guilt and shame could contribute to their implementation more strongly in individualized psychotherapy.

Impact of perinatal exposure counseling on patient reported emotional outcomes and decisional empowerment.

BACKGROUND: Exposures during pregnancy are common and most pregnant patients utilize at least one medication during pregnancy. The lack of reliable information on medication safety during pregnancy available to providers and patients is a stressor and obstacle to decision-making about medication use in pregnancy. Previous studies showed that exposures in pregnancy are associated with guilt, worry, and decisional conflict. Although prior research has evaluated changes in patient knowledge after teratogen counseling, studies have not examined emotional outcomes or patients' decisional empowerment. This quasi-experimental study measured changes in patients' feelings of guilt, anxiety, and decisional empowerment after receiving exposure counseling from trained teratogen information specialists. METHODS: We administered pre- and post-counseling surveys to patients referred to a perinatal exposure clinic in Tampa, Florida. Validated scales were used to measure anxiety and guilt, and the 'SURE' measure was used to assess decisional empowerment. Paired samples t-tests evaluated changes in anxiety and guilt and a McNemar test assessed for changes in empowered decision making. RESULTS: Among the 34 participants who completed both surveys, anxiety, and guilt scores decreased significantly (p < .001). While only 21% felt informed and empowered to make a decision related to their exposure(s) before counseling, this increased to 85% (p < .001) on the post-survey. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive counseling with a trained teratogen information specialist improves patient emotional outcomes as well as feelings of empowerment to make an informed decision regarding medication use in pregnancy. This study highlights that patient-centered teratogen counseling goes beyond simple changes in patient knowledge.

Longitudinal effects of ambivalent and guilt feelings on dementia family caregivers' depressive symptoms.

BACKGROUND: The world prevalence of people with dementia is increasing. Most of the care received by people with dementia is provided by family caregivers, and this prolonged activity has a significant impact on caregivers' levels of depression. Stressors and frequency of leisure are known predictors of caregivers' depressive levels. The longitudinal impact of caregivers' ambivalent and guilt feelings is unknown. METHODS: Participants were 177 family caregivers of relatives with dementia who were assessed three times during a 2-year period. In addition to demographic variables, psychological symptoms of the dementias, and frequency of leisure activities, caregivers' ambivalent feelings, guilt, and depressive symptoms were measured. The longitudinal association of changes in these variables with changes in caregivers' depressive symptoms over time was assessed using mixed linear models. RESULTS: Changes over time in the assessed variables predicted 48.05% of variance of changes over time in depressive symptoms. Even when variables strongly associated with increased depressive symptoms were controlled (lower caregivers' age and educational level, higher reaction to BPSD, and lower leisure activities), increases in ambivalence and guilt contributed to an increase of 9.22% of the variance of changes depressive symptoms over a 2-year period. The effects of ambivalent feelings on depression are indirect, mediated by guilt feelings. Cessation of caregiving do not seem to alter these findings. CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers' ambivalent and guilt feelings are significant predictors of caregivers' mental health. Caregivers may significantly benefit from early detection of ambivalent and guilt feelings and preventive strategies targeting triggers associated with ambivalent and guilt symptoms.

Perinatal grief creates vulnerability to anxiety in subsequent pregnancy: the mediating role of bereavement-related guilt.

AIM: This study examines the associations among perinatal grief symptoms, bereavement-related guilt, and pregnancy-related anxiety in subsequent pregnancy within the framework of a hypothesised mourning model. METHOD: Pregnant women with history of a perinatal loss were recruited using convenience sampling methods and completed a questionnaire set including the Perinatal Grief Scale, Bereavement Guilt Scale, and Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale. RESULTS: Mediation analysis was performed to evaluate the hypothesised model in a sample of pregnant women with history of a perinatal loss (N = 111). The results indicated that bereavement-related guilt functions as a mediator in the relationship between perinatal grief severity and pregnancy-related anxiety experienced in subsequent pregnancies. CONCLUSION: These findings were evaluated in light of previous studies, providing a bereavement-based perspective on the potential transmission of the mental effects of perinatal loss to subsequent pregnancy.

Differences in the link between social trait judgment and socio-emotional experience in neurotypical and autistic individuals.

Neurotypical (NT) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make different judgments of social traits from others' faces; they also exhibit different social emotional responses in social interactions. A common hypothesis is that the differences in face perception in ASD compared with NT is related to distinct social behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we combined a face trait judgment task with a novel interpersonal transgression task that induces measures social emotions and behaviors. ASD and neurotypical participants viewed a large set of naturalistic facial stimuli while judging them on a comprehensive set of social traits (e.g., warm, charismatic, critical). They also completed an interpersonal transgression task where their responsibility in causing an unpleasant outcome to a social partner was manipulated. The purpose of the latter task was to measure participants' emotional (e.g., guilt) and behavioral (e.g., compensation) responses to interpersonal transgression. We found that, compared with neurotypical participants, ASD participants' self-reported guilt and compensation tendency was less sensitive to our responsibility manipulation. Importantly, ASD participants and neurotypical participants showed distinct associations between self-reported guilt and judgments of criticalness from others' faces. These findings reveal a novel link between perception of social traits and social emotional responses in ASD.