Abstract
People can experience intense dysphoria when they fail to meet standards important to them, or important to others of consequence. Whether it is moral, competence, or conventional in nature, failure to meet important standards can lead to the emotional experiences of shame or guilt. Academic psychology tends to portray guilt as a constructive dysphoria associated with self-forgiveness, self-improvement, and making amends, whereas shame is portrayed as a debilitating self-castigation associated with avoidance of failure and its consequences. Recent theory and research, however, has bolstered a consistent, if iconoclastic, criticism that shame and guilt are not polar opposite forms of dysphoria that move people in opposite directions. Instead, guilt and shame may be better thought of close, sibling emotions that differ by degree. Even more importantly, recent theory and research suggests that guilt and shame’s links to self-forgiveness are best understood when analysts specify the exact nature of one’s emotional experience (e.g., feelings of inferiority, rejection, self-reproach) as well as whether one’s failing is more or less likely to be improved with effort.
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Leach, C.W. (2017). Understanding Shame and Guilt. In: Woodyatt, L., Worthington, Jr., E., Wenzel, M., Griffin, B. (eds) Handbook of the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60573-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60573-9_2
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