The Battle Between Guilt And Shame

Guilt and Shame. These two emotions are very much part of the human condition which always finds itself at a catch 22. The internal battle between doing what you and doing what is right according to some moral boundary. Those who do cross this theoretical and ambiguous line often find themselves feeling either guilty, ashamed or both. It wasn’t until the late 1980’s that theorists explored the idea that guilt and shame were actually two very distinct emotions, despite them often being used synonymously for one another (Webb, Hesiler, Call, Chickering and Colburn, 2007). While they both exist as negative emotions for the individual, the focus of the negativity differs. When a person feels guilty the fault can be found within an action

Guilt is often used functionally to establish and enforce moral boundaries in parent/child relationships while shame is usually a dysfunctional emotion that causes emotional harm.

With this literature review I will summarize conceptions of guilt and shame set forth by a wide variety of scholars and theorists on the subject. Once definitions are clearly defined the review will examine the motivations for evoking the emotions and the ways in which this is done. Next I will reference a variety of studies when examining at the different ways people respond to and cope with these emotions. Finally, I will specifically explore the functions and dysfunctions of guilt and shame within the parent/child dichotomy.

Conceptualizations and

Either verbally or non-verbally people evoke guilt by signaling they hold the individual accountable for the misbehavior (Vangelisti, Daly, and Rundick, 1991). In what is known as “fellow feelings” the closer two people are within an interpersonal relationship the more prone to guilt they are for something they might have done/or not done to the other person (Leith & Baumeister, 1998). This is not to say that people can’t feel guilty for a wrongdoing against a stranger. As long as someone has empathy they will feel guilty if they had anything to do with something negative happening to another person. Researchers Leith and Baumesiter (1998) explain that in guilt, the cognitive response in empathizing with another person is usually strong (Leith & Maumesiter, 1998). The same study found that empathy was linked to both healthy and satisfying relationships. Those who feel guilty have desire to repair, to confess, apologize, or make amends which can explain why their relationships are often strong (Tagney et al.,