Assessing Jail Inmates' Proneness To Shame and Guilt: Feeling Bad About the Behavior or the Self?

• NCJ Number: 235484
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 38 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2011 Pages: 710-734
• Author(s): June P. Tangney; Jeffrey Stuewig; Debra Mashek; Mark Hastings
• Date Published: July 2011
• Length: 25 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01 DA14694
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious AffectSocially Deviant Version as a measure of offenders' proneness to shame and proneness to guilt.

Abstract

This study of 550 jail inmates (379 male and 171 female) held on felony charges examines the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious AffectSocially Deviant Version as a measure of offenders' proneness to shame and proneness to guilt. Discriminant validity (e.g., vis-a-vis self-esteem, negative affect, social desirability/impression management) and convergent validity (e.g., vis-a-vis correlations with empathy; externalization of blame, anger, psychological symptoms; and substance use problems) were supported, paralleling results from community samples. Furthermore, proneness to shame and guilt were differentially related to widely used risk measures from the field of criminal justice (e.g., criminal history, psychopathy, violence risk, antisocial personality). Guilt-proneness appears to be a protective factor, whereas there was no evidence that shame-proneness serves an inhibitory function. Subsequent analyses indicate these findings generalize quite well across gender and race. Implications for intervention and sentencing practices are discussed. (Published Abstract)