Cross-Cultural Study of Korean and English Speakers' Conception of Shame & Guilt: Intentional Content, Cognitive Style, Valence, and Relationship Closeness

Abstract

Questions about what shame and guilt are, and how they can be distinguished from other experiences such as embarrassment and humiliation have received considerable attention in both the psychological and philosophical literature on shame and guilt. In this project, I will be concerned with understanding what shame and guilt are, and how they might be related to embarrassment. The first series of studies (I) will be concerned with determining whether or not the concepts of “shame” and “guilt” can be differentiated by the standard distinction about their intentional contents that is made in both philosophical and psychological literature: shame involves a focus on a global, negative self-assessment, and guilt involves a focus on one’s action or behavior. The second series of studies (II) will be concerned with determining whether the experimental philosophy intervention for the employment of the concept of “shame” that was developed and introduced in this survey is an effective intervention. The third series of studies (III) will focus on determining whether the factors of analytic versus holistic cognition and relationship closeness to the “audience” or ”critic” have any effect on a person’s employment of the conception of “shame” compared to the concept of “guilt,” as well as whether they have any effect on the valence of one’s experience in the employment of the concept of “shame” compared to the concept of “guilt.” Furthermore, all three studies will also involve determining whether there are cross-cultural differences between Korean-speakers and English-speakers