Study Of The Cognitive Appraisal Processes Of Shame And Guilt

The extant reasearch of shame and guilt which were mostly based on experience or phenomenology. And there were very few studies on the important cognitive appraisal processes for lack of guiding by a clear, systematic theory. So it was difficult to reach a agreement about the difference of shame and guilt. This article that is based on the Process Model of Self-Conscious Emotions proposed by Tracy and Robins will explore the cognitive appraisal processes of shame and guilt. All Study use the Self-report Scale Method. According to the model, the individual must activate self-representations to make identity-goal comparisons between these representations and the external emotion-eliciting event. Study 1 and 2 explore these processes, and results indicate that a) activating different self-representations will predict shame or guilt which of them would be engendered; b) the individual is shame, because his(her) behavior has been appraised incongruence with his(her) private-actual self or collective ideal self; c) and the individual is guilt, because his(her) behavior has been appraised incongruence with his(her) private-ideal self,public-actual self or public-ideal self. Study 2 modify the classification of self-representations to actual/ideal self and private/public/collecitve self from actual/ideal/ought self and private/public self in Study 1. New combination predict shame and guilt more clear.Study 3 validated the conclusions from Tracy and Robins's research which is shame be positively related to internal, stable,uncontrollable attributions, whereas guilt be positively related to internal,unstable, controllable attribuitions. Findings show that a) the individual is shame because of internal, stable,uncontrollable attributions, but this type of attribution lead to more sad than shame, one basic emotion; b) internal, controllable, stable or unstable attribuitions lead to guilt, what means controllable dimension is very important for arising guilt; c) whereas internal, uncontrollable, unstable attribuitions often regarded as pretext for mistake, wouldn't lead to self-conscious emotions.Study 4 make participants experience identity-goal comparisons and attributions processes to explore their relativistic importance and their interrelationship. Results surpport that a) identity-goal comparisons is more important than attributions process; b) there is no significant interrelationship between them, what means their influences to emotions are independent relatively.