RICHARD DYER SMITH/KIRBY LAB PSYCHOLOGY HONORS THESIS DEFENSE 13 APRIL 2012 Differences in the Motivational Urges and Enacted Behaviors of Guilt and Shame: A Study on Individualism and Collectivism

Background/Previous Research Research is lacking on cross-cultural study of emotions—previous research has left much to be desired Scherer (1997)—cross-cultural study  Large scale study looking at the role of culture in emotions Overlap of guilt and shame (Lazarus 1991) Emotion of focus:  Guilt, shame Individualism/Collectivism (proxy for culture)

Hypotheses What specific action tendencies are associated with guilt and shame? Are they different, the same, or do they overlap? Given these possibly unique motivational urges and action tendencies, is an individual’s individualism or collectivism predictive of certain behaviors for guilt and shame? Are individual’s motivational urges and action tendencies different? If so, do these differences correlate with high or low levels of individualism v. collectivism?

Validation of Negative EMGEBS Subscale Action Tendency Enacted Behavior SubscaleA. T.E. B. Persevereα = Reward oneself Take on new challenge0.68 Think about situation Seek info Talk with others Clear one’s mind Aggress* Focus attention Distance* Be spiritual Rationalize* Celebrate Stimulation* Savor the moment Hide* Show off Humor* Relax Make amends* Be creative Quit*0.84 Worry Seek comfort* Behave pro-socially Reduce the emotion* * Denotes part of new subscales

Questionnaire 86 individuals (21 male, 65 female)  Age range:  Geographic variability Four-part within-person online questionnaire  Critical incident  Emotional scales  EMGEBS

Table of significant action tendency/emotional correlations (guilt and shame) (to be added) Emotional Correlations * p < 0.01, ** p < 0.001

Partial Correlational Analysis Partial correlational analysis done to determine unique action tendencies for guilt and shame, negating the influence of the other emotion Unique action tendencies found for both emotions  Guilt: “Make amends”  Shame: “Clear one’s mind”, “Aggress”, “Distance”, “Hide”, “Make amends”, and “Quit”

Effect of Individualism/Collectivism Regression analysis to test for moderation effect of guilt/shame on unique action tendencies  Whether or not an individual’s collectivism or individualism moderates their enacted behavior One action tendency found for guilt  “Make amends”—effect of guilt on the motivation urge is less Found that collectivist individuals less likely to “Quit” as enacted behavior  No interaction with emotions

Implications for Future Research Limitations  Cross-cultural proxy  Sample size  Geographic composition Future directions  More in-depth analysis of culture variable  Increasing geographic variability

Acknowledgements Dr. Craig A. Smith Dr. Leslie D. Kirby Members of the Smith/Kirby Lab Dr. Meg Saylor Thanks!