Journal of Anxiety Disorders 24 (2010) 811–815 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Anxiety Disorders Shame- and guilt-proneness: Relationships with anxiety disorder symptoms in a clinical sample Thomas A. Fergus a , David P. Valentiner a,* , Patrick B. McGrath b , Simon Jencius b a Northern Illinois University, Hoffman Estates, IL 60115, United States b OCD and Related Anxiety Disorders Program at Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital, United States article info Article history: Received 16 November 2009 Received in revised form 29 March 2010 Accepted 3 June 2010 Keywords: Shame Guilt Anxiety disorders abstract Researchers postulate that both shame and guilt are emotions important to anxiety disorders. Extant data, however, indicate that guilt-proneness shares non-significant relationships with psychopathology symptoms after controlling for shame-proneness. To further investigate the relevance of shame and guilt to the anxiety disorders domain, the current study examined associations between shame- and guilt-proneness and anxiety disorder symptoms using data from patients (N = 124) with primary anxiety disorder diagnoses. Results indicated that only symptoms of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) shared significant relations with shame-proneness after controlling for other types of anxiety disorder symptoms, depression symptoms, and guilt-proneness. Further, changes in shame-proneness during treatment were found to share significant relations with changes in obsessive- compulsive disorder, SAD, and GAD symptoms. The current results indicate that shame is more relevant to symptoms of the anxiety disorders domain than is guilt. The implications of these results for the conceptualization and treatment of anxiety disorders are discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Shame and guilt are often considered to be synonymous emo- tions, but they are clearly distinct (Tangney, Stuewig, & Mashek, 2007). Tangney et al. note that the distinction is best articulated by Lewis’s (1971) assertion that shame leads one to focus on the self, whereas guilt leads one to focus on specific behaviors. The differ- ential focus of these two emotions is believed to produce different associated concerns, with shame relating to concerns with others’ evaluation of the self and guilt relating to concerns with one’s effect on others (Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Based on their differential focus and associated concerns, it is not surprising that shame and guilt engender divergent phenomenological experiences: whereas shame is believed to lead to feelings of worthlessness and being exposed, guilt is believed to lead to feelings of regret and remorse (Tangney & Dearing, 2002). According to Tangney and Dearing, although both shame and guilt are thought of as negative emo- tions, shame is considered the more painful of the two. Specifically, the experience of guilt is thought of as maladaptive only when it becomes generalized to the self (i.e., becomes shameful). Without this generalization, guilt is believed to have a number of adap- tive functions (e.g., motivating reparative action; Tangney et al., 2007). * Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois Univer- sity, DeKalb, IL 60115, United States. Tel.: +1 815 753 7086; fax: +1 815 753 8088. E-mail address: dvalentiner@niu.edu (D.P. Valentiner). Consistent with the notion that shame is the more painful emotion, Tangney, Wagner, and Gramzow (1992) found that shame-proneness is more strongly related to psychopathology symptoms than is guilt-proneness. Further, Tangney et al. found that relations between guilt-proneness and psychopathology symptoms are attributable to shared variance between shame- and guilt-proneness. Subsequent studies have validated Tangney et al.’s findings: shame-proneness has been found to share specific relations with psychopathology symptoms across studies, whereas the relations between guilt-proneness and psychopathology symp- toms are consistently rendered non-significant after controlling for shame-proneness (e.g., see Pineles, Street, & Koenen, 2006). Despite advances in understanding the distinct correlates of shame and guilt, Tangney et al. (1992) note that, “the clinical and empirical literature, however, is inconsistent with regard to the specific links between psychological symptoms and these moral affective processes” (p. 469). The anxiety disorders domain appears to suffer from this inconsistency. For example, both shame (Valentiner & Smith, 2008) and guilt (Shafran, Watkins, & Charman, 1996) are purported to be important in the etiology of obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. Further, although shame has been implicated in the development and maintenance of social anxiety disorder (SAD) symptoms (Gilbert, 2000), guilt was also found to significantly relate to SAD symptoms in Gilbert’s study. Researchers have suggested that shame and guilt are relevant to symptoms of other anxiety disorders as well. For example, the worry found in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is believed 0887-6185/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.06.002