Document Type : Scientific Research Manuscript

Authors

1 Professor of Social Psychology in TEFL, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Khorasan-e Razawi, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Damghan University, Semnan, Iran

3 English department, Imam Reza International UniversityAssistant Professor of Linguistics, Imam Reza International University of Mashhad Khorasan-e Razawi, Iran

Abstract

Shame and guilt, as universal and self-conscious emotions, exist in every aspect of our every-day lives. These two feelings effectively enhance the process of human socialization; they normally occur as a response to a negative evaluation of the self, which is typically based on societal standards. The above-mentioned emotions are considered as universal phenomena, however, culture can affect both. The way we value the emotions is under the influence of culture. Given the culture-specific patterns of emotions, the present research made an investigation of “shame” and “guilt”, as concepts based on culture in the Persian context. This study aimed at studying the linguistic elements stating the emotions of shame (sharmsâri, rou siyâhi, khajelat, nang, biâberouei, khejâlat, khajoul, hayâ, âberou, kamrou, etc.) and guilt (taghsir, moghaser, gonâhkâr, etc.) in the Persian language. In order to achieve this purpose, 756 natural contexts in which the utterances related to shame and guilt have been used were recorded. The data collected was then analyzed based on Dell Hymes’ SPEAKING model (1967); the various social aspects which were related to these two emotions were, then, extracted. The research made use of a corpus-based approach, and the findings of the study pointed out the importance and dominance of shame in the Iranian culture compared to guilt. The reason has its roots in the dominance of the collectivist culture among Iranians.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Ahmed, E., & Braithwaite, V. (2004). “What, me ashamed?” Shame management and schoolbullying. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 41(3), 269–294. doi:10.1177/0022427804266547

Altarriba, J. (2003). Does cariño equal “liking”? A theoretical approach to conceptual nonequivalence between languages. International Journal of Bilingualism, 7(3), 305-322.

Altarriba, J., Basnight, D. M., & Canary, T. M. (2003). Emotion representation and perception across cultures. Online readings in psychology and culture, 4(1), 4.

Bedford, O. A. (2004). The individual experience of guilt and shame in Chinese culture. Culture & Psychology, 10(1), 29-52.‏

Bedford, O., & Hwang, K. K. (2003). Guilt and shame in Chinese culture:   A cross-cultural framework from the perspective of morality and identity. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 33, 127–144.

Benedict, R. (1947). The chrysanthemum and the sword. London: Secker &Warburg.

Breugelmans, S. M., & Poortinga, Y. H. (2006). Emotion without a word: Shame and guilt among Rarámuri Indians and rural Javanese. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 1111.‏

Brown, H. D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching. Boston, MA: Prentice Hall Regents.

Cohen, T. R., Wolf, S. T., Panter, A. T., & Insko, C. A. (2011). Introducing the GASP scale: A new measure of guilt and shame proneness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(5), 947–966. doi:10.1037/a0022641

Creighton, M. R. (1990). Revisiting Shame and Guilt Culture: A forty-year pilgrimage. Ethos, 18(3), 279–307.

Crowder, M. K., & Kemmelmeier, M. (2018). Cultural differences in shame and guilt as understandable reasons for suicide. Psychological reports, 121(3), 396-429.

Crozier, R. (2014). Differentiating shame from embarrassment. Emotion Review, 6, 269–276.

De Rivera, J. (1989). Comparing experiences across cultures: Shame andguilt in American and Japanese. Hiroshima Forum for Psychology, 14,13–20.

Donnellan, M., Trzesniewski, K. H., Robins, R. W., Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2005). Lowself-esteem is related to aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency. PsychologicalScience, 16(4), 328–335. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01535.x

Fessler, D. M. T. (2004). Shame in two cultures: Implications for evolutionary Approaches. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 4(2), 207–62.

Fontaine, J. R. J., Luyten, P., de Boeck, P., Corveleyn, J., Fernandez, M., Herrera, D., et al. (2006). Untying the Gordian knot of guilt and shame: The structure of guilt and shame reactions based on situation and personvariation in Belgium, Hungary, and Peru. Journal of Cross-CulturalPsychology, 37, 273–292.

Ghazi Moradi, H. (2019). In praise of shame: Sociology of shame in Iran. Tehran: Akhtaran.

Giner-Sorolla, R., Castano, E., Espinosa, P., & Brown, R. (2008). Shame expressionsreduce the recipient’s insult from outgroup reparations. Journal of Experimental SocialPsychology, 44(3), 519–526. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2007.08.003

Goddard, C., & Ye, Z. (2014). Exploring “happiness” and “pain” across languages and cultures. International Journal of Language and Culture, 1(2), 131-148.‏

Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. New York: Anchor Books.

Grey, L., Daly, R., Thomas, J. & Marassas, W. (2018). The relationship between shame and guilt: cultural comparisons between Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 21, 221-230. doi:10.1080/13674676.2018.1455651

Ha, F. I. (1995). Shame in Asian and Western cultures. American BehavioralScientist, 38, 1114–1131.

Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London, UK: McGraw-Hill.

Hong, Y. Y., & Chiu, C. Y. (1992). A study of the comparative structure of guilt and shame in a Chinese society. Journal of Psychology, 126,171–179.

Hultberg, P. (1988). Shame: A hidden emotion. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 33, 109–126.

Hymes, D. (1967). Models of interaction of language and social setting. Journalof Social Issues, 33(2), 8-28.

Jakupcak, M., Tull, M. T., & Roemer, L. (2005). Masculinity, shame, and fear of emotions aspredictors of men’s expressions of anger and hostility. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 6(4), 275–284. doi:10.1037/1524-9220.6.4.275.

Keltner, D., & Buswell, B. N. (1997). Embarrassment: Its distinct form and appeasementfunctions. Psychological Bulletin, 122, 250–270.

Kim, S., Thibodeau, R. & Jorgensen, S. (2011). Shame, guilt, and depressive symptoms: a meta-analytic review. Psychol Bull, 137, 68- 96.

Lebra, L. (1988). Comprehensive justice and moral investment among Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 157, 278–291.

Levisen, C. (2014). The story of “Danish Happiness”: Global discourse and local semantics. International Journal of Language and Culture, 1(2), 174-193.

Lewis, H. B. (1971). Freud and modern psychology (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Plenum Press.

Lewis, M. (2008). Self-conscious emotions: Embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones & L. F. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (3rd ed., pp. 742–756). New York, NY: Guilford.

Madan, T. N. (1989). Family and Kinship: A Study of the Pandits of Rural Kashmir (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Malouf, E., Youman, K., Harty, L., Schaefer, K., & Tangney, J. P. (2013). Accepting guilt and abandoning shame: A positive approach to addressing moral emotions among high-risk, multineed individuals. In T.B. Kashdan & J. Ciarrochi (Eds.) The context Press Mindfulness and acceptance practica series. Mindfulness, acceptance, and positive psychology: The sevenfoundations of well-being (pp. 215–239). New Harbinger Publications.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224– 253. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224

Marsella, A. J., Murray, M. D., & Golden, C. (1974). Ethnic variations inthe phenomenology of emotions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,5,312–328.

Mead, M. (Ed.). (1937). Cooperation and competition among primitive peoples. NewYork: McGraw-Hill.

Needham, R. (1981). Circumstantial deliveries (Vol. 21). California: Univ of California Press.

Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Pishghadam, R. (2013). Mo’arefi-ye “zabahag” be onvān-e abzāri tahavvolgarā dar farhang kāvi-ye zabān [Introducing “cultuling” as a dynamic tool in culturology of language]. Journal of Language and Translation Studies, 45(4), 47-61.

Pishghadam, R., & Firouzian Pouresfahani, A. (2017). A sociolinguistic analysis of the discourse functions of “I don’t know” in Persian language: Hymes’ SPEAKING model. Culture-Communication Studies, 18(37), 7-35.

Pishghadam, R., & Norouz Kermanshahi, P. (2016). Relationship between language, religion, and culture: A close look into the function of Haji and the related words in Persian. Journal of Zabānpažhuhi, 8(20), 27-51.

Plutchik, R. (1991). The Emotions. America: University Press of America.

Roos, S., Hodges, E. V., & Salmivalli, C. (2014). Do guilt-and shame-proneness differentiallypredict prosocial, aggressive, and withdrawn behaviors during early adolescence? Developmental Psychology, 50(3), 941- 946.

Rostam Beyk Tafreshi, A., & Ramezani Vasoo Kalai, A. (2012). The role of culture in foreign language teaching. The Bulletin of Humanities Texts and Programs, 12(1), 15-34.

Scheff, T. (1988). Shame and conformity: The deference emotion system. American Sociological Review, 53, 395–406.

Scherer, K. R., & Wallbott, H. G. (1994). Evidence for universality andcultural variation of differential emotion response patterning. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 66, 310–328.

Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics: Cultural conceptualisations and language (Vol. 8). Amesterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Sheikh, S. (2014). Cultural variations in shame’s responses: A dynamic perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18, 387–403.

Stipek, D. (1998). Differences between Americans and Chinese in thecircumstances evoking pride, shame, and guilt. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29, 616–629.

Tangney, J. P. & Dearing, R. L. (2002). Shame and Guilt. New York, NY and London: The Guildford Press.

Tangney, J. P. (1995). Recent advances in the empirical study of shame and guilt. American Behavioral Scientist, 38, 1132–1145.

Tangney, J. P. (2001). Psychology of self-conscious emotions. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (pp. 13803–13807). Oxford, England: Elsevier.

Tangney, J. P., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1996). Is shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1256–1269.

Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. (2007). Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annual Reviewof Psychology, 58, 345–372. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070145

Tangney, J. P., Wagner, P., Fletcher, C., & Gramzow, R. (1992). Shamed into anger? The relationof shame and guilt to anger and self-reported aggression. Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, 62(4), 669–675. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.62.4.669

Wallbott, H. G., & Scherer, K. R. (1995). Cultural determinants in experiencingshame and guilt. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 465–487). New York: Guilford.

Webb, M., Heisler, D., Call, S., Chickering, S. A., & Colburn, T. A. (2007). Shame, guilt, symptoms of depression, and reported history of psychological maltreatment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 31(11–12), 1143–1153. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.09.003

Wei, Y. (2005). Integrating Chinese culture with TEFL in Chinese classroom. Sino-US English Teaching, 2(7), 55-58.

Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Wierzbicka, A. (2014). “Pain” and “suffering” in cross-linguistic perspective. International Journal of Language and Culture, 1(2), 149-173.

Wong, Y., & Tsai, J. L. (2007). Cultural models of shame and guilt. In J. Tracy, R. Robins & J. Tangney (Eds.), Handbook of self-conscious emotions (pp. 210–223). New York, NY: Guilford.

Yakeley, J. (2018). Shame, culture and mental health. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1080/08039488.2018.1525641.

Ye, Z. (2014). The meaning of “happiness” (xìngfú) and “emotional pain” (tòngkŭ) in Chinese. International Journal of Language and Culture, 1(2), 194-215.

Yin, R. K. (2010). Qualitative research from start to finish. New York: The Guilford Press.

CAPTCHA Image