Guilt has been identified as both an intrapsychic and an interpersonal emotion. The current study presents evidence of the existence of two senses of guilt, deontological and altruistic guilt, induced through different experimental paradigms. Deontological guilt evolves from having slighted moral authority or norms, while altruistic guilt arises from selfish behavior and the distress of others....

OBJECTIVES The moderator role of guilt on the effect of leisure activities on dementia caregivers' depressive symptoms was analyzed, considering differences by kinship and guilt as a multidimensional construct. METHOD Participants were 351 caregivers (58.97% daughters, 10.54% sons, 19.66% wives, and 10.83% husbands). Measures included frequency of leisure activities, depressive symptoms, and ...

Derek Freeman’s Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth (1983) attacked both the conclusions and methodology of Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). Freeman set out to refute Mead’s interpretation of a peaceful, sexually permissive Samoan society and, equally important, to discredit Mead’s cultural determinism, the assumption that the roots of human behavior...

We describe the development of a new measure to assess guilt related to concern about harming others. The two versions of the Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire, a 45-item and 67-item version, include theoretically-based and clinically relevant categories of guilt: survivor guilt, separation/disloyalty guilt, omnipotent responsibility guilt, and self-hate guilt. Preliminary reliability and valid...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The cognitive-behavioural perspective on obsessions recognizes that certain cultural experiences such as adherence to religious beliefs about the importance of maintaining strict mental control might increase the propensity for obsessional symptoms via the adoption of faulty appraisals and beliefs about the unacceptability and control of unwanted intrusive thoughts. Fe...

Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) impairs concern for other people, as reflected in the dysfunctional real-life social behavior of patients with such damage, as well as their abnormal performances on tasks ranging from moral judgment to economic games. Despite these convergent data, we lack a formal model of how, and to what degree, VMPFC lesions affect an individual's social...

Developmental psychopathology holds promise for elucidating the structure of self-awareness. Here we studied social emotions in matched groups of children and adolescents with and without autism. Our aims were to determine whether there are potentially dissociable aspects of self-awareness, and to reconsider how the qualities of young children's engagement with other persons influences the deve...

Guilt is a central moral emotion due to its inherent link to norm violations, thereby affecting both individuals and society. Furthermore, the nature and specificity of guilt is still debated in psychology and philosophy, particularly with regard to the differential involvement of self-referential representations in guilt relative to shame. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMR...