Shame and Guilt by June Price Tangney Ronda L. Dearing

Author:June Price Tangney, Ronda L. Dearing [June Price Tangney, Ronda L. Dearing]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Self-Help & Personal Growth, to read, Psych: Shame, Psychology, Nonfiction, Counseling
Published: 2008-01-07T14:16:17+00:00

some 16-year-olds feel guilt (about a specific behavior) whereas feel shame (about the entire self).

Results from our ongoing longitudinal study indicate that these individual differences in proneness to shame and guilt are remarkably sta-ble from middle childhood into early adulthood. (See Table A.5 in Appendix A for the stabilities of children's proneness to shame and guilt over an 8-year period.) Shame-proneness and guiltproneness at age 10 (as assessed by the TOSCA-C) was quite predictive of shame-proneness and guiltproneness at age 12 (as assessed by the TOSCA-A). In turn, shame-proneness and guiltproneness at age 12 was quite predictive of shame-proneness and guiltproneness at age 18 (again assessed with the TOSCA-A). Finally, shameand guiltproneness were remarkably stable across the 8-year period. These are quite stable affective dispositions, especially when we consider the length of time between assessments, the phase of development under consideration (there is a great deal go-ing on during that transition through adolescence), and the fact that we used two different measures of shameand guiltproneness. Not surprisingly stabilities were even higher among the children's parents and grandparents over the same period of time (see Table A.6 in Appendix A for more detail). A person's relative position among his or her peers remains fairly stable. That is, 10-year-olds who are more shame-prone than their classmates in fifth grade are still likely, 8 years later, to be more shame-prone than their high school peers.

As described in detail throughout this book, shame-proneness and guiltproneness are individual differences that matter For the child, these individual differences have far-reaching implications for life at home, in the classroom, and on the playground. In adolescence and adulthood, too, proneness to shame and guilt are linked to fundamental aspects of people's psychological and social wellbeing. W e still must answer the $100,000 question: Where do these differences in moral emotionalstylecomefrom?orHow dotheseindividualdifferencesin proneness to shame and guflt develop?

H O W D O INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN MORAL EMOTIONAL STYLES DEVELOP?

The family is an obvious first place to look. Emphasizing the im tance of the family, researchers have noted intergenerational continui-tiesinattachment(Benoit& Parker,1994),depression(Whitbecketal,

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Shame and Guilt across the Lifespan 147

1992), aggression (Widom, 1987, 1989), and harsh parenting (Simons, Whitbeck, Conger, & Wu, 1991). Aggressive parents tend to have aggressive children. Securely attached parents tend to have securely attached chfldren. Harsh parents raise children w h o become harsh parents. Both genetic and environmental (socialization) factors undoubtedly contribute to these intergenerational links.

Are there similar intergenerational continuities in moral emotional styleaswell?Do families—viageneticsorsocializationorboth—playa key role in shaping children's propensity to experience moral emotions?

In terms of socialization, the family might be influential in at least three ways (see Figure 9.1): First,parents' affective styles may directly influence those of their children. In their day-to-day interactions, parents provide powerful models for their children simply by how they themselves react to negative events. For example, a child may repeat-edlyobserveMom reactingwithshamewhen facedwithnegativeinter-personal exchanges. The mother may display a shrinking posture and downcast eyes. She may verbalize shame-related self-statements (e.g., "God,I'msostupid!")andattempttoescapefromshame-inducingsitu- ations. In this way, over the course of repeated daily events,

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