Two studies are reported. First, we tested the previously validated Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 (PFQ2; Harder & Zalma, 1990) shame and guilt measure and the Adapted Shame and Guilt Scale (ASGS; Hoblitzelle, 1982) Shame subscale against the newly introduced Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory (SCAAI; Tangney, 1990) for shame and guilt dispositions. Fifty-nine college undergraduates completed randomly ordered personality inventories reflecting constructs theoretically relevant to the presence of shame and guilt proneness. Correlations between the affect measures and personality variables showed evidence of validity for all shame scales. The PFQ2 Guilt subscale also demonstrated construct validity when partialled for shame, but the SCAAI did not. Second, we tested hypotheses regarding the relative importance of shame and guilt to various symptom types (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised; Derogatis, 1983) using 71 college undergraduates. Both emotions were approximately equally related to all major symptom clusters, but there was some evidence for differential patterns of relative importance for shame and guilt to different symptoms.

This study compared the validity of two promising measures of shame and guilt proneness: revisions of the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire (PFQ2; Harder & Lewis, 1987) and the Hoblitzelle Adapted Shame and Guilt Scale (ASGS; Hoblitzelle, 1982). Internal consistency, test-retest stability, factor structure, and construct validity with convergent and discriminant personality dimensions were examined for both scales. In addition to the shame and guilt measures, 63 (37 male, 26 female) mostly freshman college students completed a randomly ordered battery of personality scales theoretically relevant to shame and guilt proneness. Results support the reliability and shame/guilt factor structure of each scale. ASGS Shame correlations appeared marginally more valid with 11 external construct variables than PFQ2 Shame, whereas PFQ2 Guilt was clearly more valid than its corresponding ASGS subscale. New, potentially improved scales were constructed from the factor analyses and from item analyses. However, the resulting scales did not show improved validity.

Previous research using the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 has generally supported the validity of its subscales for the measurement of the traits of proneness to shame and guilt. This study extended the construct validity by investigating hypothesized relationships between scores on the questionnaire and several personality constructs not previously examined, including attachment style, the five personality factors assessed by the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, Sensation Seeking and Positive Affect (both from the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List-Revised). Shame and guilt scales were each expected to correlate inversely with secure attachment, Extraversion, Openness, Sensation Seeking (uninhibitidness), and Positive Affect, while they were predicted to correlate positively with Neuroticism from the NEO measure. Shame was expected to show stronger relationships than guilt with Extraversion, Openness, and Sensation Seeking. For the 41 college students results were mostly as predicted, even after shame and guilt scores were partialled for each other, thereby providing further evidence for the construct validity of the Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 scales.

To test an expected relationship between life-events (LE) stress (Social Readjustment-Rating Scale) and severity of psychopathology among 1st-admission functional-disorder psychiatric inpatients, the present study considered LE in multivariate combination with other factors relevant to the severity of mental disorder. Intensive, reliable, structured interviews with 217 15–54 yr old patients yielded LE variables reflecting stress levels and changes in stress levels for various time periods during the preadmission year, 9 indices of pathology severity, and measures of demographic, prognostic, and social supports control factors. Bivariate correlations and a replicated multiple regression data analysis procedure were employed. Small, positive significant relationships were found between LE variables and types of symptomatology. Stress levels were related to severity of neurotic and suicidal symptoms, and increases in stress just prior to admission were related to severity of schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms. Stress variables were not related to overall impairment or severity of diagnostic classification. (48 ref)

The present study sought to provide additional evidence for the construct validity of the Harder (Harder & Zalma, 1990) Personal Feelings Questionnaire‐2 (PFQ2), a recently revised measure of shame and guilt proneness. Seventy university students, 35 male and 35 female, completed the PFQ2 and scales that assess self‐derogation, instability of self‐concept, shyness, social anxiety, public self‐consciousness, private self‐consciousness, and locus of control. The correlational results were generally consistent with validity predictions. As in previous studies, however, the discriminant validity of the shame and guilt scales was supported, but not strongly.