Shame, guilt and the belief in the legitimacy of aggression in aggressive adolescent girls
Date
2018-01-15
Authors
Allison, Marilyn
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Abstract
The issues explored in this study concern the role of shame, guilt, and the beliefs supporting aggression and the implications of these factors for individual adjustment. Issues surrounding the definition of emotions in general and the theories explaining emotions were also explored. The theories of shame and guilt, the development of shame, the connections between shame and anger, shame and the development of psychopathology, shame and the development of aggression were discussed as well. Characteristics of aggressive and non-aggressive adolescent girls were determined.
The sample consisted of adolescent girls ranging in ages from thirteen to eighteen years. Four groups were randomly selected from four different pools of adolescent girls: aggressive in care, aggressive public, non-aggressive in care, and non-aggressive public. The participants were further classified into high, moderate, and low aggressive adolescent girls. The study consisted of participants answering self-report measures on aggression, self-conscious emotions, shame, self-esteem, and beliefs supporting aggression.
Clear characteristic differences were revealed using analysis of variance and post hoc least significant difference tests between high, moderate, and low aggressive adolescent girls. Correlations and multiple regression analysis also confirmed these characteristics. Aggressive adolescent girls were characterised by reporting physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, hostility, low self-esteem, shame, guilt, the belief that aggression increases self-esteem, the belief that aggression improves negative self-image, and the belief in the legitimacy of aggression. Low aggressive adolescent girls were characterised by reporting pride in self, state pride, and positive self-esteem.
Pearson product-moment correlations indicated that each aspect of aggression was significantly related to shame and to low self-esteem (both Cook and Rosenberg measures). Significant positive correlations were found between the beliefs supporting aggression and all the aspects of aggression. Positive correlations were disclosed between state guilt, physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. Significant positive correlations were found between state pride and positive self-esteem measures (Cook and Rosenberg). Correlations between shame and Cook's low self-esteem, and shame and Rosenberg's low self-esteem showed that these variables were positively related. Verbal abuse was moderately correlated with physical aggression, anger, and hostility.
Guilt proneness and state guilt were not related. Surprisingly, neither physical, sexual, nor verbal abuse were related to shame proneness or state shame.
Physical aggression was predicted primarily by one variable: the belief in the legitimacy of aggression in conjunction with one other variable such as state shame, low self-esteem, or state guilt. This pattern was also true for anger. Verbal aggression was predicted by the legitimacy of aggression and one other variable, state shame. The legitimacy of aggression was also a primary variable in the prediction of hostility.
An exploratory principal factor analysis produced five factors. The first factor describes the characteristics of shamed adolescent girls. The second factor describes the characteristics of the aggressive adolescent girl. The third factor could be interpreted as the characteristics of the non-aggressive adolescent girl, which include self-conscious affect as described by Tangney (1995). Factor four describes the beliefs in the justification of aggression that would benefit the aggressor, while factor five describes the justification of aggression that dehumanises the victim.
Discussion and implications focus on the characteristics of high and low aggressive adolescents and interpretations of the meaning of these characteristics are offered. In addition, limitations of the research design are discussed and suggestions for future research are proposed.
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Keywords
Aggressiveness in youth, Teenage girls