Reactions to Violation of Normative Standards: A Cross‐Cultural Analysis of Shame and Guilt

Abstract

This study investigates the responses from individuals from three culture groups (Germans, Kurds, and Lebanese) following the violation of legal, religious, and traditional norms. The three samples formed two main groups with regard to their cultural orientation; the German sample showed an individualistic orientation whereas the other two samples (Kurds and Lebanese) showed a clear collectivistic orientation. As hypothesized by cross‐cultural researchers, it was expected that individuals from collectivistic cultures would respond to normative violations with more shame and individuals from individualistic orientations with more guilt. The findings show that subjects from collectivistic cultures respond with more shame and guilt than subjects from the individualistic culture. However, there was no distinction with regard to the degree of guilt between the two main culture groups. Since the three culture groups show a similar religious outlook in terms of monotheism (Christianity and Islam), it was suggested that this factor increases the degree of guilt even for subjects with a collectivistic background. Moreover, it was found that the Kurds and Lebanese showed a greater willingness to keep to the norms of religion and tradition, and less willingness to allow state laws to intervene in family and ingroup disputes.

Shame and Guilt: Relationships of Test of Self-Conscious Affect Measures With Psychological Adjustment and Gender Differences in Iran

“…They marshal conceptual arguments and previous empirical findings based upon shame and guilt scales sometimes other than the TOSCA to support their claim. Indeed, numerous investigations have employed such other measures in examining samples from various Middle Eastern communities, including those, for example, from Egypt (Johnson et al, 1989), Turkey (Ersoy, Born, Derous, & van der Molen, 2011), Lebanon (Bierbrauer, 1992), and Iran (Tamini, Bojhd, & Yazdani, 2011). Dost and Yagmurlu most importantly interpret this literature to suggest that guilt can have negative mental health implications even when statistical procedures control for its covariance with greater shame.…”

The Role of Language and Cultural Orientation in Guilt and Shame Experienced by Bilingual Female Speakers

“…The salience and commonality of shame among inhabitants of nations of east Asia (see Wong & Tsai, 2007) as well as of nations of the Arab League (see Bierbrauer, 1992;Feghali, 1997) have been previously documented. Differences yet to be unearthed may exist; consider, for instance, the findings that shame is viewed as a more appropriate response than anger by Chinese youth (Cole, Bruschi, & Tamang, 2002), which is consistent with the Confucian roots of Chinese parenting practices focused on restraining emotional expression (Bond & Hwang, 1986).…”

“…Marsella, Murray, and Golden (1974) find that Chinese immigrants experience stronger shame than individuals of European descent. Bierbrauer (1992) reports that people of Lebanese and Kurdish descent, who exhibit a collectivistic orientation, experience greater shame and guilt than Germans, who exhibit an individualistic orientation. Johnson and colleagues (1987) relate that Koreans, who express a collectivistic orientation, experience less shame and guilt than participants from Taiwan, who also express a collectivistic orientation, as well as American participants, who exhibit an individualistic orientation.…”

Cultural Variations in Social Sharing of Emotions

“…Nevertheless, the sharing pattern associated with shame was found to be similar in the three groups examined in this study. There is clear evidence to suggest that individuals with a collectivistic orientation respond to norm violations with more shame than those with an individualistic orientation (Bierbrauer, 1992); however, little is known about the quality of this experience and how the ingroup handles shame in collectivistic cultures. The results obtained here certainly suggest that the ingroups in the Indian and immigrant Indian groups are not more critical or unsympathetic as compared to those in English group, particularly for the adolescent population examined in this study.…”

“…Shame is known to be more salient in collectivistic cultures (Bierbrauer, 1992;Hui & Triandis, 1986;Triandis et al, 1988), and it is also used more frequently as a mechanism of social control. The transgression of norms threatens the wellbeing of the group and ought to be sanctioned to a greater extent in collectivistic cultures.…”