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Abstract
Shame is a self-conscious emotion that was recently acknowledged as having a unique contribution to psychopathology, different from that of guilt. Several investigations have pointed out the roles that this emotion may play in the development and/or the maintenance of psychological problems. This article discusses the implications of shame for psychopathology research by focusing on four directions: shame as a predictor, shame as a diagnostic criterion, shame as a mechanism of change, and shame as outcome. We also argue for the relevance of shame in therapeutic practice, and we highlight some particular features which may have a significant impact on successful interventions, by discussing shame assessment and conceptualization, shame and disclosure in therapeutic alliance and ways of tackling shame. Starting from the existing evidence, we point out the gaps in the literature, and offer some future directions and recommendations in order to clarify the role of shame and improve treatment outcome.
Keywords: shame, self-conscious emotions, shame regulation, guilt
It is now known that besides having a well-established set of basic emotions such as fear, joy, sadness (Campos, 1995), the human being is characterized by a larger emotional spectrum including the so-called self-conscious emotions. Despite their importance to psychological functioning (Tracy & Robins, 2004), self-conscious emotions, such as shame, guilt, pride and embarrassment, have received much less attention in the clinical research literature. This may be at least partially due to the fact that until the seminal work of H.B. Lewis (1971), the field of self-conscious emotions lacked a clear integration and conceptualization, thus not allowing the differentiation between the several self-conscious emotions. After Lewis (1971) introduced the distinction between shame and guilt, stating that in shame the focus is on the global self, whereas in guilt the focus is on a specific behavior, other models which define self-conscious emotions have emerged. One of the most influential is the appraisal-based model proposed by Tracy and Robbins (2004). According to this model, self-conscious emotions are generated by cognitive appraisals about an event's implications for self-identity and the causal attributions for that event. These appraisals and attributions determine whether a basic or a self-conscious emotion will be elicited, as well as the type of self-conscious emotion. The differentiation among several self-conscious emotions allowed researchers to investigate...