The relationship between shame and guilt: cultural comparisons between Ireland and the United Arab Emirates

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Mental Health, Religion and Culture

Publication Date

3-16-2018

Abstract

© 2018, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The current study examines whether proneness to shame and guilt is related to the cultural dimensions of collectivism and individualism. Two groups of participants from Ireland (n = 120) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (n = 115) completed measures assessing collectivism, individualism, and shame and guilt proneness. Results indicated that both samples displayed similar levels of individualism and collectivism. The UAE sample reported significantly higher levels of guilt proneness and shame proneness characterised by negative self-evaluation. In contrast, the Irish sample displayed significantly higher levels of shame characterised by withdrawal tendencies. Guilt was positively correlated with individualism, but shame was not correlated with either scores on collectivism or individualism. Young Arab women appear to experience higher levels of guilt and shame characterised by negative self-evaluation in comparison to their Irish counterparts who displayed higher levels of guilt proneness.

ISSN

1367-4676

Publisher

Routledge

Volume

21

Issue

3

First Page

221

Last Page

230

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

collectivism, guilt, Individualism, shame

Scopus ID

85046013530

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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