Abstract
The relationship of the core irrational beliefs of rational-emotive therapy, religious affiliation and religiosity to guilt in 281 adult Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and persons of no religious affiliation was studied. Irrational belief endorsement, as measured by the Personal Beliefs Test (Kassinove, 1986), accounted for 26% of the explained variance and was the best predictor of total guilt, as measured by the Problematic Situations Questionnaire (Klass, 1982). There was no support for the hypothesis that “selfdirected shoulds” would show a stronger relationship to guilt as compared with other irrational beliefs and, as predicted, only irrational beliefs and not knowledge of RET principles predicted guilt. Total guilt was not different among the religions; however, religiosity was found to be a significant guilt predictor\((\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{r} = .20;\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{p}< .001)\). It was concluded that irrationality may be a very important but not primary correlate of guilt. Replication with a clinical population is suggested.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnold, M. B. (1960).Emotion and Personality: Volume II, Neurological and Psychological Aspects. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ausubel, D. P. (1952).Ego Development and the Personality Disorders. New York: Grune and Stratton.
Beck, A. T. (1973).The Diagnosis and Management of Depression. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Beck, A. T. (1976).Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. New York: International Universities Press.
Bergin, A. E. (1983). Religiosity and mental health: A critical evaluation and meta-analysis.Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 14(2), 170–184.
Burns, D. D. (1980).Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. New York: Signet.
Christenson, J. A., Houghland, J. G., Gage, B. A., & Hoa, L. V. (1984). Value orientations of organized religious groups.Sociology and Social Research, 68(2), 194–207.
Ellis, A. (1962).Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. New York: Lyle Stuart.
Ellis, A. (1973).Humanistic Psychotherapy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ellis, A. (1985, August).Some religious beliefs help produce emotional disturbance and need investigation. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles.
Ellis, A. & Grieger, R. (1977).Handbook of Rational-Emotive Therapy. New York: Springer.
Ellis, A. & Harper, R. (1975).A New Guide to Rational Living. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Epstein, S. (1972). The nature of anxiety with emphasis upon its relationship to expectancy. In C. Spielberger (Ed.),Anxiety: Current Trends in Theory and Research. Volume I. New York: Academic Press.
Eysenck, H. J. & Eysenck, S. B. (1975).Manual: Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. San Diego, Calif.: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
Fehr, L. A., & Stamps, L. E. (1979a). Guilt and shyness: A profile of social discomfort.Journal of Personality Assessment, 43(5), 481–484.
Fehr, L. A., & Stamps, L. E. (1979b). The Mosher Guilt Scales: A construct validity extension.Journal of Personality Assessment, 43(3), 257–260.
Glock, C.Y. (1959). The religious revival in America? In J. Zahn (Ed.),Religion and the Face of America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Glock, J.C. (1962). On the study of religious commitment.Religious education research supplement, 42, 98–110.
Goldman, A. (1986, August 24). Catholicism, democracy, and the case of Father Curran.New York Times, p.6. section 4.
Glatzer, N. (Ed.) (1961).Judaic Tradition: Texts Edited and Introduced. New York: Behrman House.
Good News: New Testament. (4th Ed.). (1976). New York: American Bible Society.
Kassinove, H. (1986). Self-reported affect and core irrational thinking: A preliminary analysis.Journal of Rational-Emotive Therapy, 4 (2), 119–130.
Klass, E. T. (1981). A cognitive analysis of guilt over assertion.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 5(3), 283–297.
Klass, E. T. (1982, November). Behavior-analytic assessment of guilt. Paper presented at the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Los Angeles.
Klass, E. T. (1986). Guilt and depressive experiences. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Laxer, R. M. (1964). Relation of real self-rating to mood and blame and their interaction in depression.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 28(6), 538–546.
Leckman, J. F., Caruso, K. A., Prusoff, B. A., Weissman, M. M., Merikangas, K. R., and Pauls, D. L. (1984). Appetite disturbance and excessive guilt in major depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 839–844.
Lewinsohn, P. M. (1974). The behavioral study and treatment of depression. In M. Herson, R. M. Eisler, & P. M. Miller (Eds.),Progress in Behavior Modification, (Vol 1). New York: Academic Press.
Lindsay-Hartz, J. (1984). Contrasting experiences of shame and guilt.American Behavioral Scientist, 27(6), 689–704.
Lipsky, M., Kassinove, H., & Miller, N. (1980). Effects of rational-emotive therapy, rational role reversal, and rational-emotive imagery on the emotional adjustment of community mental health center patients.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 366–374.
Mosher, D. L. (1966). The development and multitrait-multimethod matrix analysis of three measures of three aspects of guilt.Journal of Consulting Psychology, 30, 25–29.
Mosher, D. L. (1968). Measurement of guilt in females by self-report inventories.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 32, 690–695.
Mowrer, O. H., & Veszelovszky, A. V. (1980). There may indeed be a “right” way: Response to James D. Smrtic.Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, 17(4), 440–447.
Murphy, K. C. (1980). A cognitive-behavioral approach to client anxiety, anger, depression and guilt.Personnel and Guidance Journal, 59(4), 202–205.
Narramore, S. B. (1974). Guilt: Christian motivation or neurotic masochism?Journal of Psychology and Theology, 2(3), 182–189.
Prosen, M., Clark, D. C., Harrow, M., & Fawcett, J. (1983). Guilt and conscience in major depressive disorders.American Journal of Psychiatry, 140(7), 839–844.
Rimm, D. C., & Masters, J. C. (1979).Behavior Therapy (2nd ed.). New York: Academic Press.
Rohrbaugh, J., & Jessqr, R. (1975). Religiosity in youth: A personal control against deviant behavior.Journal of Personality, 43, 136–155.
Sevensky, R. L. (1984). Religion, psychology, and mental health.American Journal of Psychotherapy, 38(1), 73–86.
Shapiro, M. B. (1979). The relation of guilt and other feelings to the diagnosis of depression.British Journal of Medical Psychology, 52, 123–132.
Smith, T. W. (1982). Irrational beliefs in the cause and treatment of emotional distress: A critical review of the rational-emotive model.Clinical Psychology Review, 2, 505–522.
Smith, T. W. (1983). Change in irrational beliefs and the outcome of rationalemotive psychotherapy.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 156–157.
Stack, S. (1983). A comparative analysis of Durkheim's theory of egoistic suicide.Sociological Quarterly, 24(4), 625–627.
Walen, S., DiGiuseppe, R., & Wessler, R. (1980).A Practitioner's Guide to Rational-Emotive Therapy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wessler, R. A., & Wessler, R. L. (1980).The Principles and Practice of Rational-Emotive Therapy. Washington: Jossey-Bass.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Thomas Demaria, Ph.D., is currently a school psychologist in the Rockville Centre Public Schools in New York, and is a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Behavior Therapy in New York City
Howard Kassinove, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Director for Doctoral Training in Clinical Psychology at Hofstra University in New York. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy and the American Psychological Association and holds the ABPP diploma in Clinical Psychology
This paper is based on a doctoral dissertation completed by the first author at Hofstra University under the sponsorship of the second author. Thanks to Gina Bonfigli for helping with the collection and coding of the data. Special thanks to Charles A. Dill, Ph.D. for assisting with the statistical analyses.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Demaria, T., Kassinove, H. Predicting guilt from irrational beliefs, religious affiliation and religiosity. J Rational-Emot Cognitive-Behav Ther 6, 259–272 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01061292
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01061292