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.

The computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was administered to a sample of 96 subjects (Ss), constituted in equal parts by monozygotic twins (MZ), dizygotic twins (DZ), unique children and couples of “almost contemporary” brothers. The statistic tests (Analysis of principal components, ANOVA) underline, as far as the rapidity to define a category is concerned, a statistically significant difference between DZ and singletons, independently from the fact that the latter may be unique children. A significant difference emerged neither between MZ and singletons, nor between MZ and DZ.

This study considers the replies to a 14-item questionnaire, by 27 monozytogic (MZ) and 38 dizygotic (DZ) pairs. Another sample consisting of 48 sets of parents of twins (24 of whom were MZ and 24 DZ, not necessarily corresponding to the couples of twins actually studied) was used, to answer a questionnaire directly related the one put to the twin pairs. The results of statistical tests performed (canonical correlation and Fisher's discriminant) indicate that only in MZ twins does self-awareness outweigh pair-awareness. This does not seem to be related to any difference between MZ and DZ twins in the education/upbringing received from their parents.

This study falls in the areas of both differential psychology and twin psychology. Using the EFT and the WCST (computerized version), we examined 11 MZFF pairs between 18 and 35 years of age. The aim was to establish the genetic and/or environmental determination of global-analytical cognitive style as well as some characteristics of conceptualization linked to field dependence. The research strategy consisted of introducing three other groups of the same size to control the weight of environmental factors different from those determined by subject selection. The results seem to support the hypothesis of genetic determination of field dependence of the MZFFs, probably linked to the XX chromosome combination. The " couple effect" and the attitude of parents and others toward two identical female subjects may contribute to full expression of the genome. The characteristics of conceptualization revealed by the WCST show that MZFFs persevere in errors typical of a global approach to experience. Differential psychology and twin researchMany theoretical interpretations for explaining the psychological differences between individuals have been traditionally aligned with bio-genetic or socio-environmental determinism without providing adequate explanations about the genesis of the differences and the complex adaptive mechanisms involved in development. In this stagnant situation, current research on twins seems to offer much more than in the past the possibility of investigating the reciprocal influence and modulation of hereditary and environmental factors. This is because of the large quantity of research on the genesis of individual differences [16], which has the advantage of assuming the diachronic changes of cognitive and personological characteristics without ignoring the action of maturational factors; further, it has the advantage of a dynamic and relational perspective required for the study of individual development. It should not be forgotten that each single or twin available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.

For 77 adolescent girls (expected by Fisher and Cleveland to form concepts of body as highly differentiated from the environment) estimate of the correlation between body boundaries and Witkin's field dependence was calculated using scores from the Group Embedded Figures test and the Draw-a-Person test (to assess field-independence) and the Rorschach test (Barrier score, to assess body boundaries). Dividing subjects on the basis of scores above and below the median Barrier score of 4, significant correlations were found between Barrier score/Group Embedded Figures test and Barrier score/Draw-a-Person score for High Barrier subjects. No significant correlation was found for subjects with low Barrier scores. Field-independent subjects also had more definite body boundaries. One may then translate body boundaries into terms of field dependence.