Psychologists assess shame as one of a few measures of self-conscious emotions. In addition to shame, the list includes embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, and pride. As with many measures of person characteristics, there are measures of traits or dispositions and measures of states.
State
shame is a temporary emotion such as a state of shame following a specific act
that has been made public. Trait shame is a durable condition, which means a
person experiences shame for a period of time in multiple settings.
The classic measure of shame is the TOSCA (Test of
Self-Conscious Affect. The TOSCA, developed by June P. Tangney, is now
in its third edition and includes versions for adolescents (TOSCA-A) and children
(TOSCA-C; Tangney & Dearing, 2002).
People taking the TOSCA read a scenario and provide a
response. The TOSCA-3 is a 16-item scale. The responses reflect different ways to respond to a situation, which yield six dimensions of shame:
1. shame-proneness
2. guilt-proneness
3. externalization
4. pride in one’s self (alpha
pride)
5. pride in one’s behavior (beta pride)
6. detachment/ unconcern
The TOSCA scales are widely used.
See Tangney et al. 2000 about the TOSCA-3 version of the scale.
See the references in Watson,
Gomez, and Gullone (2016) for a
list of recent studies.
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If you would like copies of various measures, contact the
psychology lab linked to Professor Tangney’s page at George Mason University.
There is a list of scales and an email address. http://mason.gmu.edu/~jtangney/measures.html
Learn more about shame in this interview with June Tangney: https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/interviews/4317264-tangney
References
Tangney, J. P., & Dearing, R. L. (2002). Shame and
guilt. New York: Guilford Press.
Watson, S. D., Gomez, R., & Gullone, E. (2016). The
Shame and Guilt Scales of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Adolescent
(TOSCA-A): Psychometric Properties for Responses from Children, and Measurement
Invariance Across Children and Adolescents. Frontiers in psychology, 7,
635. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00635
You might also be interested in the Guilt and Shame Scale (GASP)
You might also be interested in the Guilt and Shame Scale (GASP)
Resource Link: A – Z Test Index
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Watch Dr. Tangney on YouTube
Connections
Publications (many free downloads)
