An investigation of shame and guilt in a depressed sample.
A self-report measure of proneness to shame and guilt was administered to 86 patients with moderate to severe depression, with the prediction that there would be a positive correlation of shame with severity of depression. Contrary to other, non-clinical studies, we found that guilt but not shame was associated with levels of depression. Shame-proneness demonstrated a unique association with a stable attributional style for negative outcomes, global negative self-evaluation, submissive behaviour and internalized anger. Contrary to prediction, no relationship was found between shame- or guilt-proneness and a reported history of childhood sexual abuse.
Alexander
B
B
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
Brewin
C R
CR
Vearnals
S
S
Wolff
G
G
Leff
J
J
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012649:Self Concept; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012752:Shame