Talk:Shame

improvement needed
This article needs a lot more material on the history of the term in English and the concept, and also on the anthropological material (eg the Mediterranean work of Campbell and Pitt-Rivers); and probably rather less psychology. Diomedea Exulans (talk) 07:51, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

As a psychologist I must agree with this criticism! The whole article is pervaded by the psychologising assumption that 'shame' is always the name of an emotion. But shame can be brought on someone (by themselves or by another) without them feeling anything in particular. Just as you can be guilty of a crime without feeling guilty, so too can you act in a shameful way without feeling shame. 84.68.113.194 (talk) 20:38, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Possible improvements?...
First of all, good article! :) One improvement that can bring the meaning of the word shame as from another view is this: the "shame", according to Christianity, started in Eden, when Adam and Eve tried to "cover" (as you said in the beginning of the article :) ) themselves. Also, in the Law of Moses (first 5 books of the Bible), the word "shame" is used a lot!... it almost looks like that almost all the Jewish law was based, mainly, on shame!... Also, nowadays you see that the youth is more and more encouraged to "get rid of shame", and become "shameless", while here pointing the difference you stated in the article between "shame", "embarrassment" and "guilt" might be very constructive, because it shows that "shame" can be constructive, while "embarrassment" is destructive, if we take Bernard's difference between "shame" and "embarrassment". So, a moral view would also be great, over the word "shame". Actually, i believe that shame has mainly to do with morals (personal morals).

With respect for great work, Andrew 17:11, 18 September 2009 (UTC+2)

I am revising this article for a class and am pretty new at this but I immediately thought of the religious aspect of shame when I picked the topic. I am glad others are thinking the same way. Shame is something that, according to the bible, stems from the fall of Adam and Eve so building off of that would be an excellent addition to this article. I think it would just give a good background as to where shame comes from and how much religious teaching has been, and still is, engrained in our culture. fl0wercallednowhere (talk) 07:27, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Physiological phenomena
In this article, there is scarcely any information about the physiological phenomena associated with feeling guilt or being ashamed. The only useful description given by the article (and it is rather a terse one) has been taken from a Darwin's work. Has psychology/neurology really not moved any further since then?? Shame on it then :)95.49.28.75 (talk) 15:03, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Shame as the Master Emotion of Everyday Life
Putting this here for later: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A-UiPdbuJMYJ:sell.hil.no/nndr2005/symbol.doc 46.116.79.230 (talk) 12:40, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

One of the common use of this word is Shame On You Shameful Dude —Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.136.44.158 (talk) 08:56, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

incorrect reference
I don't know how to edit a reference list or otherwise I'd do it myself, but this reference is wrong:

Tangney, JP; Miller Flicker Barlow (1996), "Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions?", Journal of Personal Social Psychology 70: 1256, doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1256,

Should be "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6)..." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.126.124.4 (talk) 16:17, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

Types
Too anglocentric, what about "vergüenza ajena", for example?--217.125.236.237 (talk) 11:47, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Shame and Guilt Confusion
regarding "According to ... that gain approval of others"

A very well informed article.

However, the sentence: "According to cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict, shame is a violation of cultural or social values while guilt feelings arise from violations of one's internal values. Thus, it is possible to feel ashamed of thought or behavior that no one knows about and to feel guilty about actions that gain the approval of others." does not make much sense. If shame is a violation of cultural values, then it would be impossible to feel ashamed of an unknown thought, and likewise, if guilt is a violation of oneself, it could be possible, but awkwardly, to use it for others. Perhaps, the author meant to switch shame and guilt, so the sentence read:

"According to cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict, shame is a violation of cultural or social values while guilt feelings arise from violations of one's internal values. Thus, it is possible to feel ashamed about actions that gain the approval of others and to feel guilty of thought or behavior that no one knows about."

(I also switched the phrases in the second sentence, so the parellism remains the same.) Note that i don't have access to the reference, so I am unable to assist here. It's just worth a check!

72.66.56.2 (talk) 02:33, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Picture of a dog
I have a slight problem with the text under the picture of a dog - "Dog Showing Shame". The dog may well be exhibiting behavior which among humans is considered 'shame' but whether dogs feel ashamed or not is highly questionable! I think the picture should be replaced by a picture of a human being showing shame rather than a dog. After all, even the text is about _human_ emotion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.249.110.140 (talk) 09:46, 25 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I fully agree with what you say. Good that you have removed the picture. One minor comment though: next time when you make an edit, please also write an edit summary. This time you could have simply written: "See talk page". So we understand that you have a good reason for removing the pic. With friendly regards,  Lova Falk     talk   08:26, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Interwikilinks
In German, shame often has to be translated with Schande, not Scham, which is linked here. But you can have only one interwikilink. Shame on Wikipedia? :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 13Peewit (talk • contribs) 11:36, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

What does social emotion mean?
Isnt anger a social emotion or mostly social? Happiness? Sadness? Shame is equally self-generated as other emotions. 153.160.152.100 (talk) 23:12, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 5 one external links on Shame. Please take a moment to review my edit. You may add after the link to keep me from modifying it, if I keep adding bad data, but formatting bugs should be reported instead. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether, but should be used as a last resort. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20100705095700/http://www.cha.harvard.edu/vov/publications/Shattered%20Shame-JHerman.pdf to http://www.cha.harvard.edu/vov/publications/Shattered%20Shame-JHerman.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20070927200045/http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2003/06/26/news/spray.campaign.debate.heats.up.html to http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2003/06/26/news/spray.campaign.debate.heats.up.html
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20081217015247/http://www.palgrave.com/PDFs/0230542719.Pdf to http://www.palgrave.com/PDFs/0230542719.Pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20060131091332/http://www.thememoryhole.org:80/war/stripped-iraqis.htm to http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/stripped-iraqis.htm
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20040820104726/http://www.columbiapsych.com:80/shame_miller.html to http://www.columbiapsych.com/shame_miller.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 22:37, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

What is shame?
The lead tells us it 'can be seen as resulting "...from..." ...may stem from... may also variously be considered...' and tells us the 'roots of the word'. It even explains that '"sense of shame" is the consciousness or awareness of shame'. But we are not told what shame is. Anyone able to help? I'm not an expert in psychology, philosophy, or sociology so I don't know what definition is intended — Iadmc  ♫ talk 05:34, 6 January 2017 (UTC)

I suspect that asking 'what shame is' may not be helpful. 'What is x?' questions always seem to elicit helpful answers when 'x' is a referential noun - one that refers to a thing of some sort - but in other situations they are themselves often opaque. It seems to me that 'shame', 'guilt', 'justice' etc don't really work well as completers for a 'what is...?' question. I propose that we get a better idea of what the word 'shame' means if we look at how it is properly used. We might ask, for example, what is essentially true of s/he who is shamed / ashamed / acts in a shameful way, etc. 84.68.113.194 (talk) 20:44, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

internet shaming
Shaming recently got a new edge. Internet shaming like the one ob janice sacco and johnah lehner are important new takes on shaming. Theking2 15:29, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

Broken reference
The first reference in the Definition section of the article is pointed at a domain squatting site. History has been deleted for the edits that added this change. I'm going to add the template message to the section. I don't know what the correct action is otherwise. The relevant text is:
 * Shame naturally has a negative valence, but it helps to define the boundaries of positive pursuits in some cases.

jamisnemo (talk) 21:11, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

Improve the needed in the “Four Subtypes” section
It is not advisable to use phrases such as “that would be your third type of shame”.

The section is also opinionated and inconsistent. 188.147.32.133 (talk) 00:36, 27 March 2022 (UTC)


 * I added a source to the four subtypes as well as re-used citations. Maher Chas (talk) 19:24, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Where on Earth did this come from ....?
"Shame causes a lot of stress on people daily, but it also teaches people a lot of lessons. Without having shame people would never be able to learn a lesson and never be able to grow from their mistakes."

Where does this sort of nonsense come from? Making mistakes leads to learning, yes. But how does shame add value to the process? How can shame be thought to be a necessary prerequisite of learning? I've come across a lot, repeat a LOT of nonsense on Wikipedia, but this is easily the most innately obscene nonsense I've encountered. It makes me doubt the value of the project, frankly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.151.210.84 (talk) 14:01, 18 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I've deleted the passage: While it's true that shame is discussed to be beneficial / adaptive in many situations (as stated elsewhere in the article), this passage lacks references and is, in its global nature, obviously incorrect. If Joseph Burgo should have made such claims, please add references (and phrase very carefully what exactly he claims), before re-inserting into the article. Thanks, Ibn Battuta (talk) 21:50, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

good article, which needs work: esp. "Comparison with embarrassment"
This article contains much good work... and yet suffers from some passages. Some sections appear to have been phrased a bit carelessly (esp. the Joseph Burgo section: what exactly does he claim, where does he claim it, etc.). Most importantly, "comparison with embarassment" is partly redundant, partly off-topic (when it comes to guilt, which belongs to the section above), and generally not well-structured. Thanks for reworking the section. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 21:50, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Potential Areas of improvement
Overall this article has excellent structure and is not too far off the mark in my opinion. The article appears to lack clear definitions and distinctions between shame, guilt, and embarrassment, which can lead to confusion. Additionally, the subtypes of shame presented in the article are questionable and lack empirical support. Djward21 (talk) 21:41, 20 May 2023 (UTC) Djward21 (talk) 21:43, 20 May 2023 (UTC)