Helping the One You Hurt: Toddlers’ Rudimentary Guilt,Shame, and Prosocial Behavior After Harming Another

This study explored the role of guilt and shame in early prosocial behavior by extending previous findings that guilt‐ and shame‐like responses can be distinguished in toddlers and, for the first time, examining their associations with helping. Toddlers (n = 32; M_age = 28.9 months) were led to believe they broke an adult's toy, after which they exhibited either a guilt‐like response that included frequently confessing their behavior and trying to repair the toy; or a shame‐like response that included frequently avoiding the adult and seldom confessing or attempting to repair the toy. In subsequent prosocial tasks, children showing a guilt‐like response helped an adult in emotional distress significantly faster and more frequently than did children showing a shame‐like response.     

Coping with guilt and shame: a narrative approach

Autobiographical narratives (N = 97) of guilt and shame experiences were analysed to determine how the nature of emotion and context relate to ways of coping in such situations. The coding categories were created by content analysis, and the connections between categories were analysed with optimal scaling and log‐linear analysis. Two theoretical perspectives were tested: the view that shame generally is a more maladaptive emotion than guilt, and the view that in situations where responsibility is ambiguous, both guilt and shame feelings are likely to be maladaptive. In line with the latter, chronic rumination was more likely to occur in situations where responsibility was ambiguous compared to situations where the respondent's responsibility was clear, regardless of emotion. In addition, reparative behaviour was less frequently reported in shame situations than in situations where the respondent felt guilty or both guilty and ashamed. The findings supported the view that the nature of emotional reaction and the nature of the situation both affect the ways of coping.     

Shame, guilt, symptoms of depression, and reported history of psychological maltreatment

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to provide preliminary data extending earlier research on shame and guilt, examining their relationships both to symptoms of depression and to psychological maltreatment. Symptoms of depression were expected to correlate positively with shame, but not with guilt. Psychological maltreatment was also expected to correlate positively with shame. The relationship between psychological maltreatment and guilt was examined on an exploratory basis. METHOD: Two hundred and eighty participants from a public community college and a private university completed scales assessing shame, guilt, depression, and history of childhood psychological maltreatment. Pearson correlations were conducted with all data. RESULTS: Results indicated that symptoms of depression were positively correlated with both shame and guilt. Partial correlations were then conducted in which the linear effects of shame were removed from guilt. In this latter analysis, guilt was no longer positively correlated with symptoms of depression. Psychological maltreatment was also positively correlated with depression and with shame, but not with guilt. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the significance of psychological maltreatment in the relationship to the self-conscious emotions of guilt and shame. As in earlier studies, shame has been consistently correlated to poor psychological functioning, while guilt appears to be relatively unrelated to pathological functioning.     

Children's Understanding of Guild and Shame

Children's conceptions of the self-conscious emotions guilt versus shame were investigated. In Study 1, 10–12-year-old children answered questions about scenarios that should elicit feelings of guilt and/or shame (moral transgressions and social blunders). In Study 2, 7–9- and 10–12-year-old children completed a sorting task to ascertain the features they associate with guilt and shame. Feelings of guilt were aroused by moral norm violations. Guilt feelings were also seen as involving an approach-avoidance conflict with respect to the victim, self-criticism, remorse, desire to make amends, and fear of punishment. Feelings of shame resulted from both moral transgressions and social blunders. Younger children associated shame with embarrassment, blushing, ridicule, and escape. Older children additionally characterized shame as feeling stupid, being incapable of doing things right, and not being able to look at others.     

Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Theories of Motivation from an Attributional Perspective

Two related attribution theories of motivation are examined. One, an intrapersonal theory, includes self-directed thoughts (particularly expectancy of success) and self-directed emotions (pride, guilt, and shame). The second is an interpersonal theory and includes beliefs about the responsibility of others and other-directed affects of anger and sympathy. These two theories are respectively guided by the disparate metaphors of the person as a scientist and the person as a judge. Some experimental evidence supporting the conceptions and the range of phenomena that they incorporate are examined.     

Restoring order: Interpreting suicide through a Burkean lens

This Burkean analysis of suicide notes argues that suicide is motivated by an innate human desire for “Order.” The notes analyzed in this study were composed by individuals who portrayed their lives as filled with much chaos and pain. In Burke's words, they viewed their lives as highly disordered. Their final communiques indicate that they saw suicide as a way to overcome the tremendous feelings of guilt and/or shame associated with that disorder. In a smaller number of cases, the deceased suggested that suicide allowed them to transcend their painful circumstances, thereby allowing them to avoid the assignment of guilt or shame. As the rhetoric of suicide notes reveals, suicide functions as an agency by which their authors believe a sense of “control” can be reestablished and, ultimately, “Order” restored to their worlds.     

Education for the Group Worker's Reality

Abstract

Within the social work profession, one's world view, one's beliefs and values based on one's experiences, strongly influences one's practice and comfort with groups.

This paper will examine some of the different ways of viewing the world held by practitioners and students in relation to the likelihood that they will be able to work effectively with groups. Such examination, and the identification of the differences among social workers that results from it has implications for both teaching and supervision in social work. These implications will be discussed and specific principles and techniques for teaching social workers, in education and in supervision, based on their world views will be described. This paper aims to enrich education for group work so that the community of social group work practitioners can grow and continue to thrive.     

School discipline in moral disarray

It has often been found in the literature that guilt motivates reparative behavior and that shame elicits aggressive reactions. However, recent research suggests that it is not the experience of shame, but rather the experience of humiliation that triggers aggressive reactions. The present study focuses on the role of shame, guilt and humiliation appraisals in predicting the motivation to repair and be aggressive in four different countries, namely Argentina, Belgium, Finland and Portugal. Using multi-group structural equation modeling with situational-level assessments of shame, guilt and humiliation appraisals, we found that guilt appraisals were indeed most likely to motivate reparation, although guilt also had a weak, but positive link to aggression via blaming others. Shame defined as negative self-evaluations had weak positive relations with both aggression and reparation. The experience of being humiliated clearly motivated aggression through blaming others and reduced reparation tendencies. These results were largely stable across the four cultural groups. The present study underlines the need to take humiliation into account when studying the links between guilt, shame and aggression.     

试论日本“耻文化”

日本的文化被称为“耻文化”,它的根源是弥生时代稻作文化所必需的共同体意识、儒教思想、多神教等因素,并且给日本社会以深远的影响。同时“耻文化”在日语表现形式方面也充分体现出来,通过对语言的了解,可以加深理解日本的“耻文化”,以便与“罪文化”区别开来。     

从《菊与刀》探析日本文化的特殊性

美国女人类学家本尼迪克特在其文化名著《菊与刀》中把日本社会的文化定义为一种＂耻感文化＂,把西方社会的文化定义为＂罪感文化＂。两者主要的区别在于＂罪感文化＂强调自律,＂耻感文化＂强调他律。实际上这是由于东西方文化对＂罪＂的概念认识的不同,而造成的理解误区。把日本文化定性为＂耻感文化＂,否定了日本人的罪感意识。确切地说日本文化兼具＂耻＂与＂罪＂文化的双重性。     

从语境顺应看《菊与刀》中的耻感文化

本尼迪克特在她的《菊与刀》中指出日本文化是不同于欧美"罪感文化"的"耻感文化"。Verschueren认为,人们使用语言的过程实际上是一个不断选择语言的过程。本文在顺应论理论框架下对《菊与刀》中的"耻感文化"进行了语境顺应性的分析。通过分析耻感文化背景下的日本人在交际过程中是如何对交际语境进行动态顺应并作出相应的语言选择,进一步探讨了语言的选择与文化语境的密切关系。     

A note on the growth of a political perspective within teaching for international understanding

"The objective of development education is to enable people to comprehend and participate in their own, their community's, their nation's and their world's development. It is an educational process in which the process is the content. It is a process in which a comprehension of reality and the confidence in one's own ability to change is a primary objective. This means that any process of development education must create a critical awareness of local, national and international situations starting from the perceived reality and perspective of the individual. Equally it must be a process which must create the will to change, and an awareness of the rôle to be played in changing the status quo. Hence it must stimulate creativity.”     

Assessing the psychometric properties of a scenario‐based measure of achievement guilt and shame

In this study, the psychometric properties of the scenario‐based Achievement Guilt and Shame Scale (AGSS) were established. The AGSS and scales assessing interpersonal guilt and shame, high standards, overgeneralization, self‐criticism, self‐esteem, academic self‐concept, fear of failure, and tendency to respond in a socially desirable manner were completed by 322 undergraduate students. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a 12‐scenario model had an acceptable fit to the data, with guilt and shame items forming separate, weakly correlated subscales. Each of the guilt and shame subscales of the AGSS demonstrated good internal and test–retest reliability. Good construct validity was also evident, with each subscale uniquely correlating with constructs in ways that were consistent with predictions. Acceptable discriminant validity was also evident. These outcomes provide support for the utility of the AGSS in assessing guilt and shame reactions in achievement situations.     

自我意识情绪的跨文化研究进展及展望——对内疚、羞耻的探讨

自我意识情绪具有社会性,而文化对于自我意识情绪的重要性便是由其社会性决定的。作为典型的自我意识情绪如内疚、羞耻,其跨文化研究已逐渐引起国内外学者关注。我们从跨文化的一致性和差异性两个维度分别进行阐述,从内疚、羞耻的产生、功能以及其与心理健康的关系等领域说明其具有跨文化一致性,同时内疚、羞耻情绪也会受到文化因素的影响导致其存在文化差异。以上述分析为基础,为自我意识情绪在跨文化研究中存在的不足提出自己的见解。     

The Importance of Self‐Regulation in Young Children With Down Syndrome

Adulthood brings with it responsibilities for making choices and decisions about one's own life. Individuals with Down syndrome, their parents and communities, have begun to expect that at least some of these responsibilities will be met by the person with Down syndrome. This will require a range of skills in managing one's own behaviour and these skills will need to be acquired in childhood. The Down Syndrome Research Program has begun a number of investigations into two important aspects of self‐regulation‐the capacity to delay gratification and mastery motivation. This paper describes the importance of these skills and habits of behaviour to those with Down syndrome and discusses the research to date.     

羞愧发展研究述评

羞愧作为一种自我意识情绪,在社会和自我发展中起着重要作用。促进羞愧产生的途径是多样性的。有关羞愧发展的理论和研究表明羞愧在诸如抑郁、攻击、社会焦虑、与免疫有关的健康问题的发展中可能是一个敏感的因素。跨文化研究表明,对羞愧的理解也存在文化上的差异。文章介绍了羞愧的发展理论、羞愧倾向性个体差异的根源研究、羞愧的发展结果等几个方面的研究,在此基础上探讨该领域未来的研究趋势。     

Motivational orientations,views about the purpose of education,and intellectual styles

College students' motivational orientations toward learning and their views concerning the purpose of education were examined in relation to various intellectual styles. Task orientation (wherein one's goal is to increase understanding or mastery) was found to be positively associated with Tolerance for Ambiguity, Thoughtfulness, and Open-Mindedness. Ego orientation (wherein one's goal is to outperform others) was negatively associated with Tolerance for Ambiguity, Thoughtfulness, Complexity, and Individualism. Moreover, the views that school's purpose should be to promote understanding and achievement motivation tended to be positively associated with these traits, but the view that school should promote one's wealth and status was not associated with these traits.     

Discovering the More: Reading Wright's,Colette's,and Cather's Texts as Philosophy of Education

Rather than using literary texts to evidence an analytic argument, within this piece we read Julia McNair Wright's (US, 1840–1902), Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette's (France, 1873–1954), and Willa Cather's (US, 1873–1947) texts through theoretical lenses that expose their educational meaning and value and that create conversation among them concerning girls’ and women's educations. While we do not claim that one can generalize these women's works and lessons to every life, we contend that these women and the literary products they created offer girls and women powerful lessons about resistance, subversion, and nurturing one's intellect, lessons that in some ways transcend class and race in particular. First, we define and explain Bruner's concept of the more using Rosenblatt, Gallagher, and Gardner's theories and findings to illuminate his concept. Next, we identify and examine three themes that emerge across these authors’ texts—subverting through the everyday, becoming one's own steward, and moving from survival to self-actualization. Establishing these themes first in Wright's texts, we then use them to frame Colette's and Cather's fiction and support these themes by focusing on one lesson that emerges from each author's work(s). Finally, we ask what one might learn about educating girls and women from these texts and others whose educative meaning and value remain hidden.     

Wisdom in the Wild

Robert Sternberg's (2001) balance theory of wisdom accommodates important aspects of wisdom, and the educational intervention he is developing from the theory seems likely to yield a positive impact. One natural objection to the theory is that it does not predict wise solutions to particular problems. This objection seems misplaced; theories of mental capabilities do not generally predict particular solutions. Another concern argues that the balance theory and intervention focus on detached judgment, neglecting seeing past one's blind spots and acting wisely. This is a serious reservation, although certainly one that can be addressed.     

Measuring faculty learning in curriculum and teaching competence online courses

Online education is used for a variety of purposes in higher education. Two such purposes are improving one's performance over time and understanding one's professional development in the context of online teaching and learning. Relying on data from online staff development courses delivered in five Spanish universities, this article explores online faculty learning through the lens of staff development theory. This theoretical perspective emphasizes the universities' quality assurance contexts and offers an empirical examination of the ways in which faculty members learn curriculum and teaching competencies (CTCs) in online staff development programmes. At the core of this analysis is the contention that faculty members understand and respond to quality teaching lessons and activities. Finally, this study highlights the points deemed important when designing, implementing, and evaluating Internet CTC training courses.