Announcements■ Thursday, November 12th at 4:15 PM

– Rough drafts due on turnitin.psu.edu

■ Sites.psu.edu/emotion– Rubric for rough draft– TurnItIn instructions and paraphrasing

examples– APA example paper (updated

yesterday)

■ Exam 3 Grades

Self-Conscious Emotions■ Negatively-valenced

self-conscious emotions– Shame– Guilt– Embarrassment

■ Positively-valenced self-conscious emotions– Pride– Hubris

Self-Conscious Emotions■ Evaluation of the self

■ Cognitively complex

■ Develop later

■ Adaptive

■ Facial and body change

The Top 10!!

■What causes shame or guilt?

■What causes embarrassment?

Top 10 Causes of Shame/Guilt1. Not spending enough time with children, partners, etc.

2. Not losing that extra pound

3. Spending money on yourself

4. Not making your partner happy

5. Always being late

6. Not being the perfect host/hostess

7. Forgetting someone’s birthday

8. Taking some “me” down

9. Letting your parents down

10. Saying “no”

(Mirror, UK)

Top 10 Most Embarrassing Moments

1. Wardrobe Malfunctions

2. Lost for Words

3. Mistaken Baby Bump

4. Romantic Mishaps

5. Looking Foolish

6. Nigel No-Friends

7. Embarrassment by Proxy

8. Dating Disasters

9. Getting caught (i.e., foot in mouth)

10. Clumsy Catastrophes

(Reader’s Digest Australia, 2009)

Two Perspectives

■ Historically, Shame → Public; Guilt → Private

■ Distinct Emotions (Tangney; Keltner)– Shame, guilt, and embarrassment are

different emotions

■ Single-Emotion Theory (Sabini & Silver)– Shame, guilt, and embarrassment are same

emotions

Distinct Emotions Perspective: Shame and GuiltBoth Shame and

Guilt■ Elicited by moral

violation

■ Negative, highly intense

■ Long-lasting

■ Similar Feelings

■ Similar Cognitive Appraisals

Shame (vs. Guilt)

■ More intense, unexpected

■ Greater physiological change (HR, blushing)

■ Less likely to confess, make amends

(Tangney and colleagues, 1996)

Distinct Emotions Perspective: Embarrassment (vs. Shame and Guilt)

■ Elicited by social, not moral convention (or just attention!)

■ Least negative, most fleeting

■ Greater physiological changes (blushing, HR)

■ Fewer moral implications

■ Less self-anger, more amusement

■ Different Cognitive Appraisals

(Tangney and colleagues, 1996)

Distinct Emotions Perspective:Eliciting Stimuli

Shame

• Moral Violations

• Large failure

• Cheating, lying

Guilt

• Moral violations

• Large failure

• Cheating, lying

Embarr

• Social Conventional violation

• Small failure

• tripping

(Keltner & Buswell, 1996, 1997)

Distinct Emotions Perspective: Cognitive Appraisals

■ Guilt = BAD ACT– specific transgression or behavior– “I cheated on this exam – my behavior was

bad, but I’m not a bad person”

■ Shame = BAD SELF– specific transgression + negative

evaluation of global self– “I cheated on this exam - I’m a bad

person”

■ Embarrassment = FOCUS ON SELF– “Those three students saw me cheat and

are looking at me.”

Distinct Emotions Perspective: Subjective Feelings■ All negatively valenced

■ Shame and guilt highly arousing, embarrassment lower in arousal

■ Guilt– Regret, remorse, rumination - nagging focus on

preoccupation with specific transgression, hope– Feelings dissipate faster than shame, slower than guilt

■ Shame– Regret, depression, immoral, disgust, self-directed anger– Feeling physically smaller and inferior to others; feel

people are watching– Feelings are long-lasting

■ Embarrassment– Feeling foolish, stupid, awkward– Feelings dissipate quickly

Distinct Emotions Perspective: Behavior Changes

■ Guilt– Approach Behavior: Desire to act - undo the bad

deed, apologize, confess– Bowed head and frown

■ Shame– Avoidance Behavior: Desire to hide or escape– Do not confess or apologize– Head and gaze down, shrinking of the body

■ Embarrassment– Avoidance Behavior: Blushing, smiling, covering face– Approach Behavior: jokes, smiling, laughing– Approach-and-Avoidance Posture: Gaze aversion +

non-Duchenne smile, nervous touching, looking at and away

Video

Distinct Emotions Perspective

■ IV: 3 emotion events– Think of a time when you felt shame [guilt]

[embarrassment]

■ Then, rated 31 dimensions – Causes, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, presence of other

people

■ Self- and other-attributions– Self-attribution: focused on own thoughts about bad

act– Other-attribution: focused on other people’s thoughts

about bad act(Tangney and colleagues, 1996)

Distinct Emotions Perspective

■ Experienced in private– 10% of guilt events– 18% shame events– 2% embarrassment

events

■ Presence of People– Shame and guilt –

close others– Embarrassment –

acquaintances and strangers

(Tangney and colleagues, 1996)

Embarrassment Guilt Shame0

1

2

3

4

5

Ps' own perceptions of how ridiculous they lookedPs' beliefs about other people's perceptions of how ridicu-lous they looked

Leve

l o

f ri

dic

ulo

usn

ess

On ridiculousness, greater discrepancies between self-attributions

and other-attributions causes embarrassment

When we view the self as more ridiculous than we think other people view

us, this causes embarrassment

Embar-rassment

Guilt Shame0

1

2

3

4

5

Ps' own percpetions of how unforgiveable their behavior wasPs' beliefs about other people's perceptions of how unforgiveable their behavior wasLe

vel of

unfo

rgiv

eable

ness

When we view the self as more unforgiveable than we think other people view us, this

causes shame and guilt

On unforgiveableness, greater discrepancies between self-attributions

and other-attributions causes shame and guilt

Distinct Emotions Perspective

■ All include conscious evaluation of the self

■ Eliciting Stimulus: – Moral vs. Social; Presence of People

■ Avoidance > Shame, Embarrassment, Guilt > Approach

■ Cognitive Appraisals– Self vs. other attributions– Unforgiveable vs. Ridiculous Discrepancies

■ Subjective Feelings – Intensity: Shame > Guilt > Embarrassment– Co-occur with different emotions

Single-Emotion Theory■ Shame, guilt, and E are different words for same emotion

■ Moral and social violations not required cog appraisals– Moral and nonmoral violations cause all 3 emotions

■ Only require cognitive appraisal is evaluation of the self– Core Self vs. Presented Self

■ Shame = flaw in one’s core self

■ Embarrassment = flaw in one’s presented self

– Real Flaw vs. Apparent (possibly visible) Flaw■ Shame = perception of a real flaw in our self or our

character

■ Embarr = perception that other people see a flaw in our self or character (may or may not be accurate)

Being drunk….shame or embarrassment?

■ Distinct Emotions – Embarrassment!

■ Single-Emotion Theory – It depends on the situation!– Does this reveal a real flaw in the person?

■ Being an alcoholic

– Does this reveal an apparent (visible) flaw?■ Being drunk at a graduation party

Single-Emotion Theory■ 20 scenarios: 10 – shame; 10 – embarr.

■ If Distinct Emotions True: – Shame scenario → Shame!– Embarr scenario → Embarr!– Zero or negative correlations

■ If Single-Emotion Theory True:– Shame scenario → Shame and Embarr!– Embarr scenario → Embarr, but not shame– High, positive correlations

(Sabini, Garvey, & Hall, 2001)

Shame Scenario Embarrassment Scenario

1234567

5.45

3.58

5.44 5.31

Shame RatingsEmbarrassment Ratings

1 =

not

at

all;

7 =

extr

em

ely

For following 2 scenarios:

1. How much shame would you experience?

1 = none; 7 = extreme shame

2. How much embarrassment would you experience?

1 = none; 7 = extreme embarrassment

You are taking a class with a friend’s boyfriend/girlfriend. You are studying late together one night for your social psych

midterm. Surprisingly your friend’s girlfriend/boyfriend tries to kiss you just as your friend walks in the room. Your friend

looks at you and asks, “How could you do something like that to me?” You are speechless and the conversation ends with your friend storming out of the room saying, “I never

want to see you again!”

You are taking a class with a friend’s boyfriend/girlfriend. You are studying late together one night for your social

psych midterm. One thing leads to another and you find yourself kissing. You agree that night never to discuss it again and not to tell your friend. However, a week later she/he finds out what happened between you two and

asks, “How could you do something like that to me?” You are speechless and the conversation ends with your

friend storming out of the room saying, “I never want to see you again.”

Single-Emotion Theory

■ 20 scenarios– 10: real flaw revealed– 10: possible flaw revealed

Real Flaw Scenario Possible Flaw Scenario

1234567

5.37

3.45

5.33 5.2

Shame RatingsEmbarrassment Ratings

1 =

not

at

all;

7 =

extr

em

ely

Single-Emotion Theory

■ Reasonable Basis – audience has a good reason to believe you

revealed a flaw, but you did not

■ No Reasonable Basis – audience perceives you have a flaw, but they

do not have good reason for this perception

■ Guilty – you are guilty of the offense, but someone else

exaggerates your offense

Reaso

nabl

e Bas

is

No Rea

sona

ble

Basis

Guilty

w/ e

xagg

erat

ion

1

3

5

7

4.172.86

4.335.43

4.075.55

3.82

6.26

2.42

Shame Ratings Embarrassment RatingsAnger Ratings

1=

no

t a

l a

ll;

7 =

e

xtr

em

ely

Reaso

nabl

e Bas

is

No Rea

sona

ble

Basis

Guilty

w/ e

xagg

erat

ion

1

3

5

7

4.172.86

4.335.43

4.075.55

3.82

6.26

2.42

Shame Ratings Embarrassment RatingsAnger Ratings

1=

no

t a

l a

ll;

7 =

e

xtr

em

ely

Single-Emotion Theory

• When a real, serious flaw of the self is revealed

Shame

• When we communicate that although there seems to have been a real flaw of the self, there actually was not.

Embarr

• When people’s perception of our potential flaw is unreasonableAnger

Other people’s perceptions of us are correct!

Other people’s perceptions of us are wrong!

Two Types of Embarrassme

nt

Embarrassment as

Exposure

No negative self-

evaluation

Compliments, focus on self

Embarrassment as Less

Intense Shame

Negative Self-Evaluation

Small specific failure of standards

Clip

What about guilt?■ Distinct Emotions –

– Guilt is a distinct emotion.– Evaluation of a bad act– Self-attribution– Maladaptive guilt can turn

into shame

■ Single-Emotion Theory– Any feelings that

characterize a guilty person– You can only feel guilt if

you are guilty!– Shame is one type of guilty

feelings

SHAME GUILT EMBARRASSMENT

Eliciting Stimulus

Moral, serious transgression

Public or Private

Moral, serious transgression

Public or Private

Less serious transgression

Public

Cognitive Appraisals

Global Self-Attribution Specific Self-Attribution

Presented Self (w/ or w/o negative

evaluation)

Behavior Changes

Avoidance

Look down, slight frown, slumped

posture

Approach

Look down, slight frown, move forward

in space

Avoidance or Approach

non-Duchenne smile, lip press, gaze down,

head movement down, face touch

Physiological Changes

Blushing, ↑ Heart rate

Subjective Feelings

Unpleasantness↑ Arousal (higher)Negative emotions

Hopelessness

Unpleasantness↑ Arousal (lower)

Negative emotionsHope

Unpleasantness (lowest),

↑ Arousal (lowest)Positive emotions

Shame? Guilt? Embarrassment?

Summary■ Distinct Emotions:

– Many Differences– But, similarities too!

■ Single-Emotion Theory– Different intensities of the same emotion– Real Flaw vs. Apparent (Possible) Flaw

determines the label we give our feelings– More work needed for guilt