Similarities and Differences of Shame Experiences between Chinese and American College Students / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To test the similarities and differences of shame experience between Chinese and American participants and explore the future research direction of shame in a cross-culture context.Methods:American college students were enrolled by convenient sampling to a semi-construct face-to-face interview about general and specific shame experience in their own culture.No new materials appeared after 8 students were interviewed.Then 8 Chinese college students were paired sampling to participate in the same interview.Finally all the in terview contents were coded according to the emotion,cognition and behavioral reaction of shame experience.Results:Both Chinese and American students reported shame experience with similar intensity in academic,personal relationship,body,group and transference shame situations.The expectations of self,peers,parents,teachers or supervisors could be sources of shame in both eastern and western cultures,and only Chinese students regarded expectation of a specific group as a source of shame.Chinese participants recalled more body reaction when feeling shame and had more cognition process related to the shame experience.Finally,besides the negative results such as avoidance that shame experience brought out,in both cultures,the most important influence of shame was reported to be the positive effects on improving or restricting improper behaviors.Conclusion:The participants from two cultures demonstrate a fairly coherence process of shame experience,and the results support the appraised-based model of self-conscious emotions.