The role of individual differences in shame-induced behavior: a review of the literature and investigation of the contribution of attachment individual differences in predicting prosocial behavior following shame

• Autor(a) principal: Henriques, Mariana de Ascensão
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/6155
• topic: Shame; Behavior; Evolutionary theories of emotion; Personality traits and processes; Group and interpersonal processes; Vergonha; Comportamento; Teorias evolucionárias das emoções; Traços e processos da personalidade; Processos de grupo e interpessoais

In this article I will review research on the role of individual differences in predicting shameinduced behavior. Shame emerges essentially from a perception that one is viewed as unattractive by others and serves the important evolutionary function of warning individuals that they may be rejected and excluded by others. To help people deal with the threat of rejection, shame is postulated to motivate them to engage in socially valued behaviors that will protect or improve their social images and in this way grant them the acceptance of others and prevent their loss of group membership. Nevertheless, research has for decades focused on the negative interpersonal and psychological consequences of shame, with studies showing how this emotion leads people to hide when commiting transgressions, become more aggressive and hostile and exhibit dimished empathy for others. Only recently have the positive behavioral functions of shame begun to be uncovered, with studies showing how this emotion may also motivate people to behave in ways that promote interpersonal acceptance (e.g. striving in performance situations, engaging in reparations following wrongdoing and behaving prosocially towards others). However, the extent to which shame will promote one type of behavior or another is dependent upon individual differences that predispose people towards adaptiveness or maladaptiveness in the face of this emotion. Because space does not allow for a consideration of all such relevant individual differences, I will review evidence of the role of self-esteem and attachment individual differences in predicting adaptive versus maladaptive behavior following shame.