Shame, guilt and morality

Journal of Moral Philosophy

Volumn 8, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 223-245

  Teroni, Fabrice ^a   Bruun, Otto ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BERN   (Switzerland)

^b UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

autonomy; guilt; pro social behaviour; responsibility; shame

Indexed keywords

EID: 79954590755     PISSN: 17404681     EISSN: 17455243     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/174552411X563574     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Three important psychological accounts along these lines are K.C. Barrett, 'A Functionalist Approach to Shame and Guilt';
2. T.J. Ferguson & H. Stegge, 'Emotional States and Traits in Children: The Case of Guilt and Shame'
3. C. Zahn-Waxler & J.L. Robinson, 'Empathy and Guilt: Early Origins of Feelings of Responsibility', all in J.P. Tangney & K.W. Fischer (eds.), Self-conscious Emotions: Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment, and Pride (New York: Guilford Press, 1995).
4. For a philosophical endorsement of this claim, see H. Morris, On Guilt and Innocence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).
5. J.P. Tangney, J. Stuewig & D.J. Mashek, 'What is Moral About the Self-conscious Emotions?', in J.L. Tracy, R.W. Robins & J.P. Tangney (eds.), The Self-Conscious Emotions: Theory and Research, (New York: Guilford Press, 2007), pp. 21-37.
6. See J. Lindsay-Hartz, J. De Rivera & M. Mascolo, 'Differentiating Shame and Guilt and their Effects on Motivation' in J.P. Tangney & K.W. Fischer (eds.), Self-conscious Emotions: Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment, and Pride (New York: Guilford Press, 1995)
7. J. MacDonald & I. Morley 'Shame and Non-Disclosure: A Study of the Emotional Isolation of People referred for Psychotherapy', British Journal of Medical Psychology 74 (2001), pp. 1-21
8. whose results support the claim that the distinction between shame and guilt corresponds to that between concealment and interaction. The distinctive connection of guilt with reparation after a wrong is further documented in J.P. Tangney & R.L. Dearing, Shame and Guilt (New York, Guilford Press, 2002)
9. J.R.J. Fontaine, P. Luyten, P. de Boeck & J.M. Corveleyn, 'Untying the Gordian Knot of Guilt and Shame: The Structure of Guilt and Shame Reactions', Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 37 (2006), pp. 273-292.
10. P. Gilbert, 'Evolution, Social Roles, and the Differences in Shame and Guilt', Social Research 70.4 (2003), pp. 1205-1230, at p. 1225.
11. In Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), Martha Nussbaum offers an account that integrates these two dispositions - hiding and turning away from responsibility.
12. Cf. K.M. Leith & R.F. Baumeister, 'Empathy, Shame, Guilt, and Narratives of Interpersonal Confl icts', Journal of Personality 66 (1998), pp. 1-37.
13. D. Fessler, 'Shame in Two Cultures: Implications for Evolutionary Approaches', Journal of Cognition and Culture 4.2 (2004), pp. 207-262). Guilt, by contrast, is associated with regard for the other (Gilbert, 'Evolution, Social Roles, and the Differences in Shame and Guilt').
14. J.P. Tangney, R.S. Miller, L. Flicker & D.H. Barlow, 'Are Shame, Guilt, and Embarrassment Distinct Emotions?', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70.6 (1996), pp. 1256-1269;
15. P. Gilbert, 'Evolutionary Approaches to Psychopathology and Cognitive Therapy', in P. Gilbert (ed.), Evolutionary Psychology and Cognitive Therapy, Spec. Issue of Cognitive Psychotherapy 16 (2002), pp. 263-294;
16. Tangney & Dearing, Shame and Guilt.
17. Tangney, Miller, Flicker & Barlow, 'Are Shame, Guilt, and Embarrassment Distinct Emotions?', p. 1267.
18. cf. also Gilbert, 'Evolution, Social Roles, and the Differences in Shame and Guilt', p. 1225)
19. The TOSCA questionnaire used by Tangney tends to produce confl ated results concerning shame and humiliation insofar as it is focused on self-attribution of phenomenal attachments such as anguish to the emotions elicited rather than self-attribution of emotion as such. Thus, despite the benefits otherwise accrued by such an approach, it will have the drawback of failing to distinguish between humiliation anguish and shame anguish. Many psychologists appear to confuse shame, shaming and humiliation (e.g. D. Keltner & L. Harker, 'The Forms and Functions of the Non Verbal Signal of Shame', in P. Gilbert & B. Andrews (eds.), Shame: Interpersonal Behavior, Psychopathology, and Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 78-98)
20. A distinction nicely drawn in R.H. Smith, J.M. Webster, W.G. Parrott & H.L. Eyre, 'The Role of Public Exposure in Moral and Nonmoral Shame and Guilt', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83.1 (2002), pp. 138-159.
21. See J. Elison & S. Harter, 'Humiliation: Causes, Correlates, and Consequences', in J.L. Tracy, R.W. Robins & J.P. Tangney (eds.), The Self-conscious Emotions: Theory and Research (New York: Guilford Press, 2007).
22. J.P. Tangney, 'Shame and Guilt in Interpersonal Relationships', in J.P. Tangney & K.W. Fischer (eds.), Self-conscious Emotions: Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment, and Pride (New York: Guilford Press, 1995);
23. P. Niedenthal, J.P. Tangney & I. Gavinski, '"If only I weren't" versus "if only I hadn't": Distinguishing Shame and Guilt in Counterfactual Thinking', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67.4 (1994), pp. 585-95. We shall come back to this important distinction in section 4.
24. R. Roberts, Emotions: An Essay in Aid of Moral Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer sity Press, 2003), pp. 229-230.
25. A. Gibbard, Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative Judgement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 297.
26. R.E. Lamb, 'Guilt, Shame and Morality', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 43.3 (1983), pp. 329-346.
27. H. Morris, 'Nonmoral Guilt', in F. Shoeman (ed.), Responsibility, Character and the Emotions (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 220-240.
28. J. Deigh, 'All Kinds of Guilt', Law and Philosophy 18 (1999), pp. 313-325.
29. J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 290.
30. See also J. Manion, 'The Moral Relevance of Shame', American Philosophical Quarterly 39.1 (2002), pp. 73-90.
31. C. Calhoun, 'An Apology for Moral Shame', The Journal of Political Philosophy 12.2 (2004), pp. 127-146;
32. R. Wollheim, On the Emotions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), Lecture 3.
33. R. Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (Reprint New American Library, 1947).
34. See J.D. Velleman, 'Don't Worry, Feel Guilty', in A. Hatzimoysis (ed.), P hilosophy and the Emotions (Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 235-248.
35. See in particular N. Eisenberg, 'Emotion, Regulation, and Moral Development', Annual Review of Psychology 51 (2000), pp. 665-697;
36. G. Kochanska, 'Mutually responsive Orientation Between Mothers and Their Young Children: A Context for the Early Development of Conscience', Current Directions in Psychological Science 11.6 (2002), pp. 191-195;
37. N. Aksan & G. Kochanska, 'Conscience in Childhood: Old Questions, New Answers', Developmental Psychology 41.3 (2005), pp. 506-516;
38. G. Nunner-Winkler & B. Sodian, 'Children's Understanding of Moral Emotions', Child Development 59 (1988), pp. 1323-1338.
39. Eisenberg, 'Emotion, Regulation, and Moral Development'.
40. B. Williams, Shame and Necessity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).
41. Calhoun, 'An Apology for Moral Shame'.
42. Wolheim, On the Emotions, Lecture 3.
43. Elison & Harter, 'Humiliation: Causes, Correlates, and Consequences'.
44. See in particular L. Boonin, 'Guilt, Shame and Morality', Journal of Value Inquiry 40 (1983), pp. 295-304
45. G. Taylor, Pride, Shame, Guilt: Emotions of Self-Assessment (Oxford University Press, 1984).
46. This claim is defended in details in J.A. Deonna, R. Rodogno and F. Teroni, In Defense of Shame (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
47. For empirical evidence, see in particular K.C. Barrett, P.M. Cole & C. Zahn-Waxler, 'Avoiders versus Amenders: Implications for the Investigation of Guilt and Shame during Toddlerhood?', Cognition and Emotion 7 (1993), pp. 481-505
48. Lindsay-Hartz, De Rivera & Mascolo, 'Differentiating Shame and Guilt and their Effects on Motivation'
49. J.P. Tangney, 'Situational Determinants of Shame and Guilt in Young Adulthood', Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18 (1992), pp. 199-206.
50. For a recent defence of this distinction, see J. Deonna & F. Teroni, 'Differentiating Shame from Guilt', Consciousness and Cognition 17.3 (2008), pp. 725-740.
51. For further discussion and analysis of the global self-assessment involved in shame, see Deonna, Rodogno & Teroni, In Defense of Shame.
52. Defenders of the 'reputation' type theory of shame may posit unconscious thoughts about an audience. But that is really just to turn on its head the relationship between the theoretical conclusion and the empirical evidence for that conclusion. For empirical data that throw doubt on the necessary presence of an audience in shame, see Tangney, Miller, Flicker & Barlow, 'Are Shame, Guilt, and Embarrassment Distinct Emotions?'
53. Smith, Webster, Parrot & Eyre, 'The Role of Public Exposure in Moral and Nonmoral Shame and Guilt'.