How Do Personality Traits Effect Shame and Guilt?: An Evaluation of the Turkish Culture

Year 2014, Issue: 58, 113 - 132, 29.07.2015

Seval Erden , Müge Akbağ

https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2015.58.4

Abstract

roblem Statement: Feelings of shame and guilt as negative social emotions have a deep and continuous impact throughout our lives, particularly on our behaviors in both intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. It was widely accepted that these feelings originate from a person's early period of life's interpersonal experiences in the family and other key relationships. According to literature, shame and guilt are also related to personality traits; however, research findings were not consistent with each other. At this point, owing to the possible effect of the culture on shame and guilt, it can be considered that the relationship between these emotions and personality needs to be investigated in the cultural context. 

Purpose of the Study: The aim of the present study is to investigate the predictive power of the Big Five Model's personality traits on shame and guilt in Turkish culture.

Methods: The study was designed according to the Relational Survey Model. The sample of the study consisted of 360 (F= 183, M=177) students who studied in several faculties and departments of a city university located in the western part of Turkey. The participants’ age ranged between 17–30 years (M=21.35, SD= 1.64). The Shame-Guilt Scale and Five-Factor Personality Inventory (NEO FFI) were used as measurements.

Findings and Results: Results showed that shame and guilt were predicted

Keywords

Shame, guilt, Big Five personality traits, personality development, Turkish culture

References

• Abe, J. A. (2004). Shame, guilt, and personality judgment. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 85–104.
• Akbağ, M., & Erden-İmamoğlu, S. (2010). Cinsiyet ve bağlanma stillerinin utanç, suçluluk ve yalnızlık duygularını yordama gücünün araştırılması. [The prediction of gender and attachment styles on shame, guilt, and loneliness]. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 10 (2), 651-682.
• Barrett, K. C. (1995). A functionalist approach to shame and guilt. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 25-63). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Baumeister, R. F., Stillwell, A. M., & Heatherton, T. F. (1995). Interpersonal aspects of guilt: Evidence from narrative studies. In J. P. Tangney, & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotion: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 255–273). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Bedford, O., & Hwang, K. (2003). Guilt and shame in Chinese culture: A cross-cultural framework from the perspective of morality and identity. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 33, 127-144.
• Benetti-McQuoid, J., & Bursik, K. (2005). Individual differences in experiences of and responses to guilt and shame: Examining the lenses of gender and gender role. Sex Roles, 53 (1-2), 133-142.
• Bybee, J., & Quiles, Z. N. (1998). Guilt and mental health. In J. Bybee (Ed.), Guilt and children (pp. 269–291). New York, NY: Academic Press.
• Costa, P. T. Jr., & McCrae. R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa. FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
• Costa, P. T., & Widiger, T. A. (1994). Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Cross, S. E., & Madson, L. (1997). Models of the self: Self-construal theory and gender. Psychological Bulletin, 122, 5-37.
• Ekşi, H. (2004). Kişilik ve başaçıkma: Başaçıkma tarzlarının durumsal ve eğilimsel boyutları üzerine çok yönlü bir araştırma. [Personality and coping: A multidimensional research on situational and dispositional coping]. Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Bilimleri/ Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 4 (1), 94-98.
• Einstein, D., & Lanning, K. (1998). Shame, guilt, ego development, and the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality, 66, 555–582.
• Fossum, M. A., & Mason, M. J. (1986). Facing shame: Families in recovery. New York, NY: Norton.
• Gilbert, P., Pehl, J., & Allan, S. (1994). The phenomenology of shame and guilt: An empirical investigation. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 67, 23-36.
• Göktan, B., & Akbağ, M. (2010). An investigation on Turkish military school students: Are there associations among big five personality factors, perceived family environment and hopelessness?, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2 (2), 5458-5462.
• Graziano, W. G., & Eisenberg, N. (1997). Agreeableness: A dimension of personality. In R. Hogan, J. A. Johnson, & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 795-824). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
• Graziano, W. G., Jensen-Campbell, L. A., & Hair, E. C. (1996). Perceiving interpersonal conflict and reacting to it: The case for agreeableness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 820-835.
• Graziano, W. G., & Ward, D. (1992). Probing the Big Five in adolescence: Personality and adjustment during a developmental transition. Journal of Personality, 60, 425–429.
• Gülgöz, S. (2002). Five-factor model and NEO-PPI in Turkey. In R.R. McCrae, & Allik, J. (Eds.). The five factor model of personality across cultures (pp. 175-195). New York, NY: Kluwer Academia /Plenum Publishers.
• Harder, D. W. (1995). Shame and guilt assessment, and relationships of shame- and guilt-proneness to psychopathology. In J. P. Tangney, & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), The self-conscious emotions (pp. 368–392). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Harder, D. W., & Greenwald, D. F. (1999). Further validation of the shame and guilt scales of the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaires-2. Psychological Reports, 85, 271–281.
• Hoffmann, M. L. (1998). Varieties of empathy-based guilt. In J. Bybee (Ed.), Guilt and children (pp. 91-112). Boston, MA: Academic Press.
• Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw-Hill.
• Izard, C. E. (1978). Guilt, conscience and morality. Human emotions (pp. 421-452). New York, NY: Plenum Press.
• Johnson, J. A., & Ostendorf. F. (1993). Clarification of the Five-factor-model with the abridged big Five dimensional circumflex. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 65, 563–576.
• Jones, W. H., Kugler, K., & Adams, P. (1995). You always hurt the one you love: Guilt and transgressions against relationship partners. In J. P. Tangney, & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 274–300). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• John, O. P., Caspi, A., Robins, R. W., Moffitt, T. E., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1994). The ‘‘little five’’: Exploring the nomological network of the five-factor model of personality in adolescent boys. Child Development, 65, 160–178.
• Jung, H. (2002). Shame as a mediator between parenting and psychological adjustment for Causian and Korean students: A structural equation modeling approach (Unpublished dissertation), Biola University, USA.
• Kağıtçıbaşı, Ç. (2010). Benlik, aile ve insan gelişimi: Kültürel psikoloji. [Family, self, and human: Development across cultures]. İstanbul: Koç University Publishing.
• Kağıtçıbaşı, Ç., & Ataca, B. (2005). Value of children and family change: A three decade portrait from Turkey. Applied Psychology: International Review, 54, 317-337.
• Kurt, E. (2001). Effects of religiosity, personality traits and social responsibility attitudes on nonspontaneous helping behavior in a natural disaster (Unpublished master thesis). Bosporus University, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Lewis, H. B. (1971). Shame and guilt in neurosis. New York: International Universities Press.
• Lewis, H. B. (1987). Introduction: Shame – The “sleeper” in psychopathology. In H. B. Lewis (Ed.), The role of shame in symptom formation (pp. 1-28). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Lewis, M., Alessandri, S. M., & Sullivan, M. W. (1992). Differences in shame and pride as a function of children’s gender and task difficulty. Child Development, 63, 630-638.
• Lindsay-Hartz, J., De Riviera, J., & Mascolo, M. F. (1995). Differentiating guilt and shame and their effects on motivation. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp.174-300). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• McCrae, R. R. (1996). Social consequences of experiential openness. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 323-337.
• McCrae, R. R. (2002). NEO-PPI data from 36 cultures: Further intercultural comparisons. In R.R. McCrae & J. Allik (Eds.), The five factor model of personality across cultures (pp. 105-125). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
• McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1997). Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist, 52, 509–516.
• Nathanson, D. L. (1992). Shame and pride: affect, sex, and the birth of the self (1st ed.). New York, NY: Norton.
• Niedenthal, P. M., Tangney, J. P., & Gavanski, I. (1994). “If only I weren’t” versus “If only I hadn’t”: Distinguishing shame and guilt in counterfactual thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 585–595.
• O’Connor, L. E., Berry, J. W., & Weiss, J. (1999). Interpersonal guilt, shame, and psychological problems. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 18, 181–203.
• Oyserman, D., Coon, H.M., & Kemmelmeier, M. (2002). Rethinking individualism and collectivism: Evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 128 (1), 3-72.
• Penley, J.A., & Tomaka, J. (2002). Associations among the Big Five, emotional responses, and coping with acute stress. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 1215-1228.
• Roberts, B. W., & DelVecchio, W. F. (2000). The rank-order consistency of personality traits from childhood to old age: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 3–25.
• Robins, R. W., John, O. P., & Caspi, A. (1998). The typological approach to studying personality development. In R. B. Cairns, L. Bergman, & J. Kagan (Eds.), Method and models for studying the individual (pp. 135–160). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Robins, R. W., Hendin, H. M., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2001). Measuring global self-esteem: Construct validation of a single item measure and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 151–161.
• Savaşır. I., & Şahin. N. H. (1997). Bilişsel-davranışçı terapilerde değerlendirme: Sık kullanılan ölçekler. [The evaluation of cognitive-behavioral therapy: The scales used frequently]. Ankara: TPD Yayınları.
• Sayar, K. (2003). Kültürel bakış açısından benlik ve kişilik. [Self and personality from cultural view]. Yeni Symposium, 41(2), 78-85.
• Smith, B. D., Hanges, J., & Dickson, M.W. (2001). Personnel selection and Five-Factor Model: Reexamining the effects of applicant's frame of reference. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86 (2), 304-315.
• Smith, C. A., & Lazarus, R. S. (1993). Appraisal components, core relational themes, and the emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 233-269.
• Schore, A. N. (1998). Early shame experiences and infant brain development. In P. Gilbert & B. Andrews (eds.), Shame: Interpersonal behavior, psychopathology, and culture (pp. 57-77). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Tangney, J. P. (1991). Moral affect: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 598– 607.
• Tangney, J. P. (1995). Shame and guilt in interpersonal relationships. In J. P. Tangney, & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 114–139). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Tangney, J. P., Burgraff, S. A., & Wagner, P. E. (1995). Shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, and psychological symptoms. In J. P. Tangney, & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), The self-conscious emotions (pp.343–367). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Tangney, J. P., & Dearing, R. L. (2002). Shame and guilt. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Tangney, J. P., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 1256-1269.
• Tangney, J. P., Wagner, P. E., Fletcher, C., & Gramzow, R. (1992). Shamed into anger? The relation of shame and guilt to anger and self-reported aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 669–675.
• Taylor, G. (1985). Pride, shame and guilt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Triandis, H. C. (1994). Recherches récentes sur l’individualisme et le collectivisme [Recent research on individualism and collectivism]. Les Cahiers Internationaux de Psychologie Sociale, 23, 14-27.
• Tong, E. M., Bishop, G. D., Enkelmann, H. C., Why, Y. P., Diong, S. M., Ang, J., & Khader, M. (2006). The role of the Big Five in appraisals. Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 513–523.
• Woien, S. L., Ernst, H. A. H., Patock-Peckham, C., & Nagoshi, C. T. (2003). Validation of the TOSCA to measure shame and guilt. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 313-326.
• Zhong, J., Li, B., & Qian, M. (2002). Esteem in the personality, shame and mental health model: Its direct and moderating effects (in Chinese). Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 10, 241–245.