Assessing Jail Inmates’ Proneness To Shame and Guilt

Abstract

This study of 550 jail inmates (379 male and 171 female) held on felony charges examines the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious Affect –Socially Deviant Version (TOSCA-SD; Hanson & Tangney, 1996) as a measure of offenders’ proneness to shame and proneness to guilt. Discriminant validity (e.g., vis-à-vis self-esteem, negative affect, social desirability/impression management) and convergent validity (e.g., vis-à-vis correlations with empathy, externalization of blame, anger, psychological symptoms, and substance use problems) was supported, paralleling results from community samples. Further, proneness to shame and guilt were differentially related to widely used risk measures from the field of criminal justice (e.g., criminal history, psychopathy, violence risk, antisocial personality). Guilt-proneness appears to be a protective factor, whereas there was no evidence that shame-proneness serves an inhibitory function. Subsequent analyses indicate these findings generalize quite well across gender and race. Implications for intervention and sentencing practices are discussed.

An Exploratory Study of Physical Abuse–Related Shame, Guilt, and Blame in a Sample of Youth Receiving Child Protective Services: Links to Maltreatment, Anger, and Aggression

“…Multiple findings support the notion that shame and blame proneness and absence of guilt proneness might contribute to problematic outcomes: (a) shame proneness was found to be associated with anger, (b) external blaming was associated with aggression, and (c) guilt proneness was inversely associated with aggression (Gold et al, 2011;Hoglund & Nicholas, 1995;Retzinger, 1991;Stuewig, Tangney, Heigel, Harty, & McCloskey, 2010;Tangney, Stuewig, & Hafez, 2011;Tangney, Stuewig, Mashek, et al, 2011;Tangney, Wagner, Barlow, Marschall, & Gramzow, 1996;Tangney, Wagner, Fletcher, & Gramzow, 1992). Research on the relationship between shame and aggression, however, has garnered confusing results.…”

“…Researchers have given consideration to rational-emotive processes (Bennett et al, 2005;Deblinger & Runyon, 2005;Harper & Arias, 2004;Hoglund & Nicholas, 1995;Stuewig & McCloskey, 2005) and examined the potential of shame, blame, and absence of guilt as mediating factors in this cycle of violence. However, shame, guilt, and external blaming were typically examined as dispositional issues, for example, proneness to experiencing shame and guilt, propensity to attribute personal failure to external causes, and inclination to blame others when shamed (Gold, Sullivan, & Lewis, 2011;Tangney, Stuewig, Mashek, & Hastings, 2011). Leeming and Boyle (2004) were critical of the focus on shame as a character trait, and noted the lack of extant research on event-specific shame.…”

Agreement and similarity in self-other perceptions of moral character

“…Accordingly, it has been shown that highly guilt-prone adults engage in less deviant and counterproductive business practices compared to adults with low levels of Guilt Proneness, and they are less deceptive in negotiation and when making economic interpersonal decisions (Cohen et al, 2011;Cohen, Panter, Turan, Morse, & Kim, 2013). Moreover, they engage in fewer risky and illegal behaviors, have less jail experience, and fewer felony convictions compared to adults with low levels of Guilt Proneness (Dearing, Stuewig & Tangney, 2005;Tangney & Dearing, 2002;Tangney et al, 2009;Tangney, et al, 2011). Guilt Proneness is strongly correlated with Honesty-Humility (e.g., r = .51 in Cohen et al, 2011, Study 2), and this correlation is higher than the corresponding correlations between Guilt Proneness and the other HEXACO dimensions.…”

Forgiveness Therapy to Increase the Meaning of Life Among Inmates In

“…Data yang diperoleh dari Lapas X pada tahun 2014, terdapat 88 WBP perempuan mengalami kondisi yang menyedihkan di samping mengalami berbagai penyakit fisik juga mengalami gangguan emosi yang umum seperti stres dan depresi (SragenPos.com, 2014 Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa WBP perempuan memiliki kemungkinan mengalami permasalahan psikologis yang lebih besar dibanding laki-laki seperti malu dan merasa bersalah (Stuewig, Mashek, & Hastings, 2011), depresi, psikosis, kecemasan, gangguan psikiatrik dan penyalahgunaan obat yang berhubungan dengan tindakan untuk melakukan bunuh diri (Christopher & McMurran, 2009;Rivlin, dkk, 2010). Perempuan memiliki risiko yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan laki-laki secara klinis terhadap gangguan mental seperti gejala bunuh diri dan halusinasi.…”