Shame-reduction group therapy with conduct-disordered adolescents: A self-psychological approach to understanding aggression and its treatment

Conduct Disorder is believed to result from internalized shame that occurs when the individual's sense of self fails to merge with the ideal self. Ninety-five adolescents from urban schools participated in this study, with 50 undergoing 10 shame-reduction group sessions and 45 serving as a control. The Internalized Shame Scale (Cook, 1994) and the Trait-Anger and Anger-Out subscales of the State-Trait Anger Inventory (Spielberger, 1988) assessed intrapsychic shame, anger, and aggression before and after 10 group therapy sessions. Positive correlations were found between shame, anger and aggression. Group therapy participants showed a significant decrease in internalized shame, trait-anger, and in aggression when compared to controls. No gender differences were found for anger and aggression measures. Boys reported significantly less shame than girls at both the pretest and posttest, while a trend suggested that girls experienced a greater decrease in shame.