Note on guilt appeals in advertising: covariate effects of self-esteem and locus of control.

A 1991 study by Pinto and Priest demonstrated the effectiveness of advertisements employing moderate levels of guilt in inducing guilt responses in subjects. Because individuals' responses to guilt are often influenced by their specific personality characteristics, researchers have pointed to the potential moderating effects of individual difference variables such as level of self-esteem and locus of control on individuals' susceptibility to guilt appeals. A study was conducted to evaluate the possibility that self-esteem and locus of control can act as covariates across three treatment levels of guilt advertising. From a sample of 57 working mothers, advertisements stimulating medium and high levels of guilt elicited significantly greater feelings of guilt in subjects than the control advertisement stimulating low guilt. However, the relationship between susceptibility to guilt appeals and self-esteem and locus of control was not observed to covary.     

Parental blaming and acquisition of guilt: A developmental task of childhood

Incidents involving the authors' twin 10-year-old daughters illustrate that guilt is well established in normal children of 10. The incidents suggest how the expectation of parental blaming triggers guilt and shame. Guilt and shame are compared. While they may coexist in the 10-year-old, guilt clearly is assuming a dominant position. Mental health professionals have emphasized the psychopathology of guilt and many forget that it is essential for normal socialization in that the guilty person feels a need to repair damage allegedly done. Guilt presumes that at least a primitive mutuality has been established in the person; and mutuality is the hallmark of human maturity. Terms are defined here with some variation from their usage by mental health experts: shame, guilt, blame, and counterblame.     

The role of interpersonal harm in distinguishing regret from guilt

Regret and guilt are emotions that are produced by negative outcomes for which one is responsible. Both emotions have received ample attention in the psychological literature; however, it is still unclear to what extent regret and guilt represent distinct psychological processes. We examined the extent to which the distinction between interpersonal harm (negative outcomes for others) and intrapersonal harm (negative outcomes for self) is crucial in differentiating these two emotions. In a series of 3 studies we found that guilt is predominantly felt in situations of interpersonal harm, whereas regret is felt in both situations of interpersonal harm and intrapersonal harm. Moreover, the results show that in situations of interpersonal harm the phenomenology of regret shares many, but not all features with the phenomenology of guilt. We conclude that the emotion processes resulting from interpersonal and intrapersonal harm are clearly distinct, but that regret as an emotion label is applied to both types of processes whereas the emotion label guilt is primarily used to refer to experiences of interpersonal harm. Implications for emotion research are discussed.     

Guilt in bereavement: Its relationship with complicated grief and depression

This study investigated the relationship between guilt and well‐being of bereaved persons, and explored potential differences in the associations between guilt‐complicated grief (CG) and guilt‐depression. In total, 1358 Chinese bereaved adults were recruited to fill out questionnaires. Participants (N = 194) who had been bereaved within 2 years of the first survey, filled out the same questionnaires 1 year later. Higher guilt was associated with higher degrees of both CG and depression. The level of guilt predicted CG and depression symptoms 1 year later. Bereavement‐related guilt has a closer association with CG than depression. Responsibility guilt, indebtedness guilt and degree of guilt feeling are more prominent aspects of guilt in CG than in depression. These findings demonstrate the significant role of guilt (perhaps a core symptom) in mental health of the bereaved, having implications for identifying persons with grief complications and depression.     

Personality Influences in Appraisal–Emotion Relationships: The Role of Neuroticism

ABSTRACT Although appraisal theorists have pointed out that appraisal–emotion relationships should vary as a function of personality traits, evidence demonstrating this is limited and inconsistent. To examine this issue, Ecological Momentary Assessment was employed in which undergraduates indicated their negative emotions and appraisals at regular intervals for 2 days in natural contexts. The results revealed that individuals higher in Neuroticism showed more negative appraisal styles than those lower in Neuroticism. More important, higher Neuroticism was associated with stronger appraisal–emotion relationships of 4 negative emotions (anger, sadness, fear, and guilt). These findings imply that Neuroticism affects not only how people appraise their environments but also the reactivity of their negative emotions to appraisals.     

The threat of those who “understand”: ways in which out‐groups induce guilt

Two types of out‐groups are hypothesized to make people feel guilty about their in‐group's misdeeds. Given its expertise and legitimacy, a disapproving victimized out‐group should raise guilt. However, when a morally tainted perpetrator out‐group is the evaluator, a need to differentiate the self from this out‐group should characterize the guilt responses. This out‐group's disapproval should therefore diminish guilt, whereas some understanding toward the in‐group's position may paradoxically increase guilt. Moreover, these patterns are likely to be accentuated as in‐group identification increases. Predictions were supported among Dutch participants (N = 145) who read how either the current Jewish Dutch (victimized out‐group) or Germans (perpetrator out‐group) evaluated the Dutch collaboration with the Nazis. Results indicated that compassion for the victimized partially mediated the guilt responses. Implications for how perpetrator groups are persuaded to acknowledge their misdeeds are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Proneness to shame, proneness to guilt, and psychopathology.

The links between shame and guilt and psychopathology were examined. In 2 studies, 245 and 234 undergraduates completed the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory, the Symptom Checklist 90, the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Scale, and the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Results failed to support Lewis's (1971) notion that shame and guilt are differentially related to unique symptom clusters. Shame-proneness was strongly related to psychological maladjustment in general. Guilt-proneness was only moderately related to psychopathology; correlations were ascribable entirely to the shared variance between shame and guilt. Although clearly related to a depressogenic attributional style, shame accounted for substantial variance in depression, above and beyond attributional style.     

5～9岁儿童内疚情绪理解的特点

选取87名5、7、9岁儿童探讨儿童对违规行为的道德评价对其内疚情绪理解的影响。以期揭示儿童在同伴条件下,对内疚情绪的理解特点。结果发现(1)5～9岁的儿童对违规行为都给出了消极的道德评价,他们已经具备了产生内疚情绪的认知能力,但尚不能进行道德情感推理,即不认为违规者会产生内疚情绪。(2)三个年龄段的儿童大部分对于内疚情绪还不能很好地理解,他们更多地是从行为产生有利于违规者的结果来理解违规者的情绪。     

The experimental model and treatment of neurotic depression

Learned helplessness is at present widely accepted as a model for depression. Depression, however, is a symptom-complex that has many causes. Three general causal categories are distinguished—normal, neurotic and endogenous. Neurotic depressions comprise the main clinical category whose causation is primarily external.

This paper shows that neurotic depression is evidently a function of conditioned anxiety response habits that finds a paradigm in experimental neuroses, not in learned helplessness. Both experimental and clinical neurotic depressions are overcome by deconditioning anxiety.

In a sample of 25 cases treated by the deconditioning of anxiety, 22 recovered from their depressions; and the recoveries were found to have endured in the 19 of them who were followed up for at least 6 months.     

对不公正历史事件的情绪反应—— 群体内疚

只要个体把自己归于施害群体, 并且承认所属群体对不道德的行为负有责任, 而无需自己参与其中, 就会体验到群体内疚, 它是一种自我聚焦的情绪。内群体责任、伤害行为的正当化、知觉到的补偿困难等认知因素都会影响群体内疚程度, 而个体的优先价值观和国家认同等会造成成员间群体内疚体验的个体差异。群体内疚的体验会促进施害群体对受害群体的道歉和补偿支持。将来伤害行为的群体内疚, 以及与其他情绪的综合考察方面还需要进一步研究。     

Forms of Concern: Toward an Intersubjective Perspective

The growing interest in the issue of concern, which appeared relatively late in psychoanalytical literature, resulted in several distinctions. Winnicott distinguished between concern as an expression of guilt and concern as a manifestation of joy, Brenman Pick distinguished between real concern and spurious concern, and Bowlby distinguished between sensitive and compulsive caregiving. The basic concepts of Buber’s dialogical philosophy and intersubjective approaches in psychoanalysis have created fertile ground for the study of concern, and enabled us to conceptualize these distinctions in a way that has heretofore been lacking in psychoanalytical thought.     

Juror decision making: A case of attitude change mediated by authoritarianism

For a jury to reach a unanimous decision, certain individuals must change their attitudes with regard to the defendant's guilt during deliberations. Because these changers are the key to the group decision-making process, they were carefully scrutinized to ascertain demographic or personality characteristics which might be mediating their behavior. In three experiments, two using college students as subjects and one using Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury pool members, it was found that authoritarians changed their attitude with regard to the defendant's guilt more than equalitarians. Further, most of these “changers” were aware they had changed their attitude. There was no generalizable evidence for the proposition that authoritarians are more likely to favor a guilty verdict.     

Long-Term Guilt and Hostility Underlying Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in War Combatants and Ex-Prisoners of War

The link between posttraumatic guilt and posttraumatic stress disorder has gained recognition over the past decades and was recently expressed in the modifications made to the diagnostic criteria for the disorder under the DSM-V. Yet, the psychological dynamics underlying this relation are still not fully understood. The present study introduces a model whereby different dynamics between guilt and hostility are related to posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS), following different traumatic war experiences. One hundred and forty-four former prisoners of war (ex-POWs) and 143 comparable combatants participated in the study, 30 years after the war, reporting on their PTSS, guilt, and hostility. Moderation analyses revealed a three-way interaction, where high hostility buffered the effect of guilt on PTSS only among ex-POWs. This finding suggests a distinctive dynamic among guilt, hostility, and PTSS following diverse traumatic events. Specifically, it appears that hostility can have a mitigating effect on the negative outcomes of guilt for ex-POWs following trauma, but not for non-POW veterans. The theoretical reasoning and the clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Punishing hypocrisy: The roles of hypocrisy and moral emotions in deciding culpability and punishment of criminal and civil moral transgressors

Three experiments explored how hypocrisy affects attributions of criminal guilt and the desire to punish hypocritical criminals. Study 1 established that via perceived hypocrisy, a hypocritical criminal was seen as more culpable and was punished more than a non-hypocritical criminal who committed an identical crime. Study 2 expanded on this, showing that negative moral emotions (anger and disgust) mediated the relationships between perceived hypocrisy, criminal guilt, and punishment. Study 3 replicated the emotion finding from Study 2 using new scenarios where group agents were clearly aware of the hypocrisy of their actions, yet acted anyway. Again, perceived hypocrisy worked through moral emotions to affect criminal guilt and punishment. The current studies provide empirical support for theories relating hypocrisy and moral transgressions to moral emotions, also informing the literature on the role of moral emotions in moral reasoning and legal decision making.     

亚健康研究进展述评

从亚健康的概念范畴、病因学、症状学、检测和评估、流行病学等角度系统分析了亚健康的研究现状,检讨了在其研究过程中的不足,探索了相应的对策,指出亚健康作为一门新兴学科和一个重要领域,在其学科化建设中的缺憾,以及今后的建构重点。     

Intrapsychic and interpersonal guilt: a critical review of the recent literature

Various authors hold that some emotions (i.e., moral emotions) have the function of orienting people toward ethical actions. In addition to embarrassment, shame and pride, the moral emotion of guilt is believed to affect humans’ behavior when they carry out transgressions that violate social and cultural standards. Over the past century, many studies (including controversial ones) have been conducted on guilt. In this study, we analyzed and summarized mainly the most recent literature on this emotion. On one side, the destructiveness of guilt is emphasized. It inflicts punishment and pain on individuals for their errors and can lead to psychopathology (e.g., depression). On the other side, it is described as a “friendly” emotion that motivates behavior adapted to social and cultural rules. How can this asymmetry be explained? Different existing views on guilt are presented and discussed, together with recent proposals, supported by research data. Finally, we discussed some systematic models that try to incorporate these different views in a single framework that could facilitate future researches.     

More than enough guilt to go around: oedipal guilt, survival guilt, separation guilt

The concepts of oedipal guilt, survivor guilt, and separation guilt are examined using clinical material from a child case to demonstrate the intermingling of these constructs. A brief review of their evolution in the psychoanalytic literature reveals a frequent conflation of the terms guilt and fear, the former at times standing in for both meanings. The fear/guilt distinction and the subsequent differentiation of guilt into oedipal, survivor, and separation guilt have implications for how analysts understand and interpret particular kinds of clinical material. Two sets of adult clinical data are next presented: the first illustrates a shift from interpreting a patient's fear of retribution for forbidden desires to interpreting guilt over pursuing those desires. The second vignette illustrates a common dynamic in which a patient's fear/anxiety regarding the ability to lead an independent life defends against deeper feelings of guilt over this same desire. This latter dynamic can play an important role in negative therapeutic reactions and interminable analyses. Developmental research suggests that toward the end of the first year of life, infants' capacity to attribute independent mental states and intentionality to self and others allows for the rudimentary experience of guilt.     

Stimulus programming in psychophysics

Summary and Conclusion The major thesis of this paper has been that one should choose a psychophysical method appropriate to the question which prompted the inquiry. It has been suggested that the method of constant stimuli, although not inappropriate for most questions, is by no means optimal for any particular question. A class of stimulus programming techniques called Markov designs has been briefly described. These have the principal advantage of using data as it is gathered to improve the selection of stimuli for the remainder of the experiment. This improvement is achieved by concentrating observations in the region of most interest. They are also reasonably easy to carry out and can be tailored to a wide range of experimental objectives, and pose no new problems in data analysis.Finally data analysis is discussed. It is pointed out that the question of which mathematical form to use in graduating the data is a minor one if the data are efficiently gathered and that, within reason, mathematical convenience is a good criterion. An advantage of the logistic function over the normal ogive is mentioned.Few of the ideas advanced here are new but many have not been appreciated fully by psychophysicists. The emphasis in this paper has been on the areas of sensitivity testing in which psychophysics has lagged behind best statistical practice, although it was pointed out that no efficient methods of analysis of the continuous response procedures have yet been devised by the statisticians. Better communication in both directions is clearly desirable.Operated with support from the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force.     

Uses of guilt in the treatment of dehumanization

It is likely that under the impact of impending Nazism, aggression theory in late Freud, as presented in Civilization and its Discontents (1930), left the entirety of guilt to self‐punishment, thus retracting his view that love functions in the superego as remorse and restitution. This change however, essentially withdraws provision for treating victims of abuse, violence and terror. This paper proposes a paradigm shift that reframes Freud's late instinct theory into a theory of dehumanization by recovering reparative and relational components of guilt. This reframe has major implications for the position taken with regard to the role of witnessing and the moral imperative in recovery from dehumanizing experience, which orthodox psychoanalytic theory has essentially bypassed. It is propose that victim treatment, as case examples illustrate, reformulates guilt as drawing on the life instincts to revivify victims’ humanity through analytic witnessing and acknowledgment. Indeed, unless breaches of humanity are confronted by a witness, the life instincts stay merely rhetorical, if not contradictory, by leaving the death instincts to grow unseen and, thus, unopposed. A two‐fold formulation of guilt may better address and redress disorders of dehumanization, whereby ‘death guilt’ (under the sway of aggression) signifies the orthodox, irrevocable guilt of self‐reproach for the bad we may have done, and ‘life guilt’ (under the sway of a moral imperative) the redeemable guilt for the good we have still to do.     

Sexual experience and recall of sexual vs. nonsexual information

The effects of both sex guilt and sexual experience on the ability to remember sexual and nonsexual information were examined Male and female subjects were asked to read and then recall facts from vignettes that concerned sexual and nonsexual dilemmas As expected, the sexually inexperienced subjects made more mistakes than did the experienced subjects when recalling sexual information There were no differences between the groups in recall of nonsexual information, and there were no differences associated with the sex guilt variable In addition, one subgroup of the sample was singled out as being particularly interesting from an applied perspective Previous research has identified high-guilt, high-experience women as being an at-risk group for unwanted pregnancy In fact, these women did have difficulty in remembering the sexual information Moreover, there was a clear bias in their recall pattern toward remembering information in favor of being sexually active Results are presented in terms of the relationship between sexual experience and sexual schemata, and between sex guilt and emotionality