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What's the difference between guilt and shame?

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June Tangney |

How to Deal with Difficult Feelings

• April 2021

We all experience feelings of guilt or shame at some point. What should we do with them? Clinical psychologist June Tangney differentiates between constructive guilt and crippling shame so that we can learn to better identify and manage our feelings. (This video is part of TED's "How to Deal with Difficult Feelings" series.)

We all experience feelings of guilt or shame at some point. What should we do with them? Clinical psychologist June Tangney differentiates between constructive guilt and crippling shame so that we can learn to better identify and manage our feelings. (This video is part of TED's "How to Deal with Difficult Feelings" series.)

About the speaker

June Tangney

Professor of clinical psychology

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June Tangney studies the moral emotions of shame and guilt, with a specific focus on currently and formerly incarcerated people.

June Tangney and Ronda L. Dearing | Guilford Press, 2003 | Book

Shame and Guilt (Emotions and Social Behavior)

Tangney and Dearing delve into the nature of shame and guilt, and the implications of these emotions for self-esteem, relationships, psychological and behavioral adjustment and "doing the right thing."

June Tangney et al. | Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 2015 | Article

"Children's proneness to shame and guilt predict risky and illegal behaviors in young adulthood"

June Tangney et al. | Psychological Science, 2014 | Article

"Two Faces of Shame: The Roles of Shame and Guilt in Predicting Recidivism"

Tangney and Stuewig show that, among both elementary school children and jail inmates, shame and guilt predict serious real-life risk-taking and offenses years later.

June Tangney | ResearchChannel, 2008 | Watch

"Shame and Guilt: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"

Tangney describes the difference between shame and guilt, and summarizes 20 years of research on the implications of these moral emotions for mental health, relationships and behavior. She explores the possibility of transmission of shame and guilt across family generations and summarizes initial work with incarcerated people.

Emi Furukawa et al. | Self and Identity, 2014 | Article

"Cross-cultural Continuities and Discontinuities in Shame, Guilt, and Pride: A Study of Children Residing in Japan, Korea and the USA"

Kris T. Gerhard et al. | Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 2019 | Article

"Threatened-masculinity shame-related responses among straight men: Measurement and relationship to aggression."