Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

A Comparison of the Inherent Adaptivity Perspective and Functionalist Perspective on Guilt and Shame

Version 1 : Received: 25 July 2017 / Approved: 25 July 2017 / Online: 25 July 2017 (05:48:34 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 20 September 2017 / Approved: 21 September 2017 / Online: 21 September 2017 (04:11:10 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 6 December 2017 / Approved: 7 December 2017 / Online: 7 December 2017 (05:50:39 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Dempsey, H.L. A Comparison of the Social-Adaptive Perspective and Functionalist Perspective on Guilt and Shame. Behav. Sci. 2017, 7, 83. Dempsey, H.L. A Comparison of the Social-Adaptive Perspective and Functionalist Perspective on Guilt and Shame. Behav. Sci. 2017, 7, 83.

Abstract

Within the field of guilt and shame, two competing perspectives have been advanced. The first, the inherent adaptivity perspective, has been primarily advanced by Tangney and colleagues. This position advocates that guilt is an inherently adaptive emotion and shame is an inherently maladaptive emotion; thus, those interested in moral character development and psychopathology should work to increase an individual’s guilt-proneness and decrease an individual’s shame-proneness. The functionalist perspective, in contrast, has advocated that both guilt and shame can serve a person adaptively and maladaptively—depending on the situational appropriateness, duration, intensity, and so forth. This paper reviews the research conducted supporting both positions, critiques some issues with the most widely used guilt- and shame-proneness measure in the inherent adaptivity research (the TOSCA), and concludes that the functionalist perspective is more broad in scope and fits the existing research better.

Keywords

guilt; shame; emotion; functionalist perspective; TOSCA

Subject

Social Sciences, Psychology

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