Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T05:12:14.896Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How Relational Bonds Influence Strategies for Coping with Guilt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2013

Alessio Nencini  and
Anna Maria Meneghini
Alessio Nencini
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology (University of Verona), Verona, Italy
Anna Maria Meneghini*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology (University of Verona), Verona, Italy
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Anna Maria Meneghini, Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology (University of Verona), Lungadige Porta Vittoria, 17, 37129Verona (Italy). Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Many studies have shown that guilt is an important moral emotion that motivates reparative actions in order to maintain positive interpersonal relationships. However, when the victim of an offence does not have a close relationship with the transgressor or when the intensity of the whole experience is irrelevant or excessive, people can adopt different strategies to cope with their feelings of guilt. The paper aims to investigate the relation between interpersonal relationships, responsibility taking elicited by moral transgressions and coping strategies. Results show that experiences of guilt vary on the basis of the degree of closeness with the harmed person. The closeness of the relational bond between transgressor and victim also affects the global intensity of the experience of guilt (made of a set of correlated emotions), thus favoring the choice of self or other-oriented strategies to cope with guilt. Global low intensities of guilt tend to favor self-oriented strategies, while wrongdoings that elicit high emotional intensities are often considered too serious and thus irreparable. Medium intensities of guilt experiences are more frequently managed through adaptive, other-oriented strategies.

Keywords

guiltmoral emotionsinterpersonal relationshipscoping strategies
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Relationships Research , Volume 4 , 25 October 2013 , e9
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Australian Academic Press Pty Ltd 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amodio, D.M., Devine, P.G., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2007). A dynamic model of guilt. Implications for motivation and self-regulation in the context of prejudice. Psychological Science, 18, 524–530.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anolli, L., & Pascucci, P. (2005). Guilt and guilt-proneness, shame and shame-proneness in Indian and Italian young adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 39 (4), 763–773.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R.F., Stillwell, A.M., & Heatherton, T.F. (1994). Guilt: An interpersonal approach. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 243–267.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R.F., Stillwell, A.M., & Heatherton, T.F. (1995). Personal narratives about guilt: Role in action control and interpersonal relationships. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 173–198.Google Scholar
Bybee, J., Merisca, R., & Velasco, R. (1998). The development of reactions to guilt-producing. In Bybee, J. (Ed.), Guilt and children (pp. 185–209). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Fontaine, J.R., Luyten, P., De Boeck, P., & Corveleyn, J. (2001). The test of self-conscious affect: Internal structure, differential scales and relationships with long-term affects. European Journal of Personality, 15, 449–463.Google Scholar
Fontaine, J.R., Luyten, P., De Boeck, P., Corveleyn, J., Fernandez, M., Herrera, D., Ittzés, A., & Tomcsányi, T. (2006). Untying the Gordian knot of guilt and shame. The structure of guilt and shame reactions based on situation and person variation in Belgium, Hungary, and Peru. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37, 273–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, P., Pehl, J., & Allan, S. (1994). The phenomenology of shame and guilt: An empirical investigation. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 67, 23–36.Google Scholar
Izard, C.E. (2009). Emotion theory and research: Highlights, unanswered questions, and emerging issues. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 1–25.Google Scholar
Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Kubany, E.S., Hill, E.E., Owens, J.A., Iannce-Spencer, C., McCaig, M.A., Tremayne, K.J., & Williams, P.L. (2004). Cognitive trauma therapy for battered women with PTSD (CTT-BW). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 3–18.Google Scholar
Lee, D.A., Scragg, P., & Turner, S. (2001). The role of shame and guilt in traumatic events: A clinical model of shame-based and guilt-based PTSD. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 74, 451–466.Google Scholar
Leith, K.P., & Baumeister, R.F. (1998). Empathy, shame, guilt, and narratives of interpersonal conflicts: Guilt-prone people are better at perspective taking. Journal of Personality, 66, 1–37.Google Scholar
Lindsay-Hartz, J., De Rivera, J., & Mascalo, M.F. (1995). Differentiating guilt and shame and their effects on motivation. In Tangney, J.P. & Fischer, K.W. (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions. The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 274–300). New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Luyten, P., Fontaine, J.R., & Corveleyn, J. (2002). Does the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) measure maladaptive aspects of guilt and adaptive aspects of shame? An empirical investigation. Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 1373–1387.Google Scholar
Monteith, M.J. (1993). Self-regulation of prejudiced responses: Implications for progress in prejudice-reduction efforts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 469–485.Google Scholar
Monteith, M.J., Ashburn-Nardo, L., Voils, C.I., & Czopp, A.M. (2002). Putting the brakes on prejudice: On the development and operation of cues for control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1029–1050.Google Scholar
Nelissen, R.M., & Zeelenberg, M. (2009). When guilt evokes self-punishment: Evidence for the existence of a Dobby effect. Emotion, 9, 118–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nencini, A., & Meneghini, A.M. (2013). The influence of social expectations on strategies for coping with moral transgressions. Revista de Psicología Social, 28 (2), 131–144.Google Scholar
Orth, U., Berking, M., & Burkhardt, S. (2006). Self-conscious emotions and depression: Rumination explains why shame but not guilt is maladaptive. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1608–1619.Google Scholar
Roseman, I.J., Wiest, C., & Schwartz, T.S. (1994). Phenomenology, behaviors, and goals differentiate discrete emotions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 206–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rüsch, N., Corrigan, P.W., Bohus, M., Jacob, G.A., Brueck, R., & Lieb, K. (2007). Measuring shame and guilt by self-report questionnaires: A validation study. Psychiatry Research, 150, 313–325.Google Scholar
Scherer, K.R., & Wallbott, H.G. (1994). Evidence for universality and cultural variation of differential emotion response patterning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 310–328.Google Scholar
Silfver, M. (2007). Coping with guilt and shame: a narrative approach. Journal of Moral Education, 36, 169–183.Google Scholar
Tangney, J.P., & Dearing, R.L. (2002). Shame and guilt. New York: Guilford Publications.Google Scholar
Tangney, J.P., Miller, R.S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D.H. (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1256–1269.Google Scholar
Tangney, J.P., Miller, R., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1256–1269.Google Scholar
Tangney, J.P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D.J. (2007). Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 345–372.Google Scholar
Tangney, J.P., Wagner, P.E., & Gramzow, R. (1989). The Test of Self-Conscious Affect. Fairfax, VA: George Mason.Google Scholar
Tracy, J.L., & Robins, R.W. (2006). Appraisal antecedents of shame and guilt: Support for a theoretical model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1339–1351.Google Scholar
Weiss, J. (1986). Unconscious guilt. In Weiss, J. & Sampson, H. (Eds.), The psychoanalytic process: Theory, Clinical observation and empirical research (pp. 43–67). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Wicker, F.W., Payne, G.C., & Morgan, R.D. (1983). Participant descriptions of guilt and shame. Motivation and Emotion, 7, 25–39.Google Scholar