BACKGROUND Nationally, HIV incidence is rising rapidly among young (18-24 years old) men who have sex with men (YMSM). Knowledge of safer sex generally enhances self-efficacy for safer sex, an important predictor of safer-sex behaviors. Recent findings suggest that a strong negative social emotion (i.e., shame) increases YMSM's sexual risk-taking. Unchangeable shame (e.g., desire for other men)...

Shame is a common, although understudied, reaction to trauma. It is associated with numerous negative outcomes after trauma including emotional distress and health problems. Using a mixed experimental and correlational design, this study explored the association between trauma exposure, negative underlying assumptions (NUAs; attitudes such as “If I make a mistake, it means I am a bad person”), ...

An increased clinical interest in shame has been reflected in the growing number of research studies in this area. However, clinically orientated empirical investigation has mostly been restricted to the investigation of individual differences in dispositional shame. This study reviews recent work on dispositional shame but then argues that the primacy of this construct has been problematic in ...

This paper outlines a theory of hidden shame as the cause of depression, and the rudiments of a treatment plan. It builds upon earlier studies of shame, especially the work of the psychoanalystpsychologist Helen Block Lewis. The theory concerns the cybernetics of emotion: recursive shame-based spirals may be the basic mechanism of both minor and clinical depression. Shame/fear, shame/shame, and...

in his editorial, nir eyal argues that a nudge can exploit our propensity to feel shame in order to steer us toward certain choices. we object that shame is a cost and therefore cannot figure in the apparatus of a nudge.

Psychological research using mostly cross-sectional methods calls into question the presumed function of shame as an inhibitor of immoral or illegal behavior. In a longitudinal study of 476 jail inmates, we assessed shame proneness, guilt proneness, and externalization of blame shortly after incarceration. We interviewed participants (N = 332) 1 year after release into the community, and we acc...

When faced with shame, children can either respond in submissive ways to withdraw from their environment or in externalizing ways to oppose their environment. This study tested the hypothesis that fragile-positive views of self predispose children to respond in externalizing ways to shame situations. Narcissism, actual and perceived social preference, global self-worth and propensity towards ex...

Although shame is one of the most primitive and universal of human emotions, it is often still considered a taboo topic among researchers, practitioners, and clients. This paper presents the empirical foundation for shame resilience theory—a new theory for understanding shame and its impact on women. Using grounded theory methodology, 215 women were interviewed to determine why and how women ex...

Two prominent emotions in borderline personality disorder (BPD) are shame and anger. Rumination has been demonstrated to occur in response to shame and to escalate anger, and rumination, particularly anger rumination, has been shown to predict BPD symptoms. The present study tested a structural equation model in which shame leads to the features of BPD via increased anger and anger rumination. ...

Making learners aware of their mistakes is a frequent strategy used by practitioners; the common assumption is that doing this will ultimately lead to improvements in motor behavior. However, making someone aware of their errors, especially in front of their peers, can cause the person to feel embarrassed or ashamed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of induced shame on th...