Assessing individual differences in proneness to shame and guilt: Development of the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory.
Abstract
Individual differences in proneness to shame and proneness to guilt are thought to play an important role in the development of both adaptive and maladaptive interpersonal and intrapersonal processes. But little empirical research has addressed these issues, largely because no reliable, valid measure has been available to researchers interested in differentiating proneness to shame from proneness to guilt. The Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory (SCAAI) was developed to assess characteristic affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses associated with shame and guilt among a young adult population. The SCAAI also includes indices of externalization of cause or blame, detachment/unconcern, pride in self, and pride in behavior. Data from 3 independent studies of college students and 1 study of noncollege adults provide support for the reliability of the main SCAAI subscales. Moreover, the pattern of relations among the SCAAI subscales and the relation of SCAAI subscales to 2 extant measures of shame and guilt support the validity of this new measure. The SCAAI appears to provide related but functionally distinct indices of proneness to shame and guilt in a way that these previous measures have not.
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Individual differences in proneness to guilt and shame have been classically measured using self-report questionnaires.
“Individual differences in proneness to certain moral emotions, such as guilt (O'Connor et al., 1997;Tangney, 1990) and shame (Tangney, 1990) have been classically measured using self-report questionnaires.”
From Affective Cognition and its Disruption in Mood Disorders (2011) · cites this paper as Tangney, 1990
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- Authors
- Tangney, J. P.
- Affiliations
- George Mason University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Tangney, June P.
- ORCID
- Tangney, June P.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 1990
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 102-111
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2002529894
- Cited by
- 601
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 11.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (IR15HD25506)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Forgiveness and Related Behaviors
- Keywords
- shame, guilt, individual differences, self-conscious emotions, blame attribution, detachment, pride, young adults, scale development, reliability statistics, validity
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Female, Guilt, Humans, Individuality, Internal-External Control, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Personality Inventory, Psychometrics, Self Concept, Shame
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