Contrast Dimmesdale and Hurstwood in Terms of Passion, Guilt and Death

Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter and Henry Hurstwood in Sister Carrie have little in common in passion,guilt and death though they follow almost the same pathroad of life.From the comparison between them——their different beliefs,social environments and author's different ideas,we know that the differences under the almost same surface makes literature more colorful which enriches our life.     

Internalized homophobia and adult attachment: Implications for clinical practice.

Two hundred eighty-six men and women who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) were surveyed using measures of attachment, internalized homophobia, shame, and guilt. Results indicated that secure attachment was negatively correlated with internalized homophobia, shame, and guilt. Fearful and preoccupied attachments were positively correlated with these constructs, accounting for 36.9% of the variance in scores. Results are discussed in terms of the therapeutic relationship, with the therapist serving as a secure base for LGB clients working through issues of internalized homophobia and social isolation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pattern of change in prolonged exposure and cognitive-processing therapy for female rape victims with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Curve estimation techniques were used to identify the pattern of therapeutic change in female rape victims with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Within-session data on the Posttraumatic Stres Disorder Symptom Scale were obtained, in alternate therapy sessions, on 171 women. The final sample of treatment completers included 54 prolonged exposure (PE) and 54 cognitive-processing therapy (CPT) completers. For both PE and CPT, a quadratic function provided the best fit for the total PTSD, reexperiencing, and arousal scores. However, a difference in the line of best fit was observed for the avoidance symptoms. Although a quadratic function still provided a better fit for the PE avoidance, a linear function was more parsimonious in explaining the CPT avoidance variance. Implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thematic sexual responses as related to sexual drive and guilt.

The Ss were 66 males. A special set of cards "with a built-in dimension of sexual relevance" was employed. A "direct relationship was found between sexual drive as measured by rate of orgasm, but not by deprivation, and sexual responses. Self-reported guilt and thematic sexual responses were significantly inversely related when deprivation was held constant. A significant interaction was found for deprivation by guilt, but not for rate by guilt, with thematic sexual responses… . Analysis of individual pictures indicated that pictures of relatively low sexual relevance best measured drive, and pictures of relatively high sexual relevance best measured guilt." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HJ69L. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affirmation, acknowledgment of in-group responsibility, group-based guilt, and support for reparative measures.

Three studies, 2 conducted in Israel and 1 conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, demonstrated that affirming a positive aspect of the self can increase one's willingness to acknowledge in-group responsibility for wrongdoing against others, express feelings of group-based guilt, and consequently provide greater support for reparation policies. By contrast, affirming one's group, although similarly boosting feelings of pride, failed to increase willingness to acknowledge and redress in-group wrongdoing. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated the mediating role of group-based guilt. That is, increased acknowledgment of in-group responsibility for out-group victimization produced increased feelings of guilt, which in turn increased support for reparation policies to the victimized group. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's responses to guilt displays.

Displaying guilt after a transgression serves to appease the victim and other group members, restore interpersonal relationships, and indicate the transgressors' awareness of and desire to conform to the group's norms. We investigated whether and when young children are sensitive to these functions of guilt displays. In Study 1, after 4- and 5-year-old children watched videos of transgressors either displaying guilt (without explicitly apologizing) or not displaying guilt, 5-year-olds appropriately inferred that the victim would be madder at the unremorseful transgressor and would prefer the remorseful transgressor. They also said that they would prefer to interact with the remorseful transgressor, judged the unremorseful transgressor to be meaner, and, in a distribution of resources task, gave more resources to the remorseful transgressor. The 4-year-olds did not draw any of these inferences and distributed the resources equally. However, Study 2 showed that 4-year-olds were able to draw appropriate inferences about transgressors who explicitly apologized versus those who did not apologize. Thus, 4-year-olds seem to know the appeasement functions that explicit apologies serve but only when children have reached the age of 5 years do they seem to grasp the emotions that apologies stand for, namely, guilt and remorse, and the appeasement functions that displaying these emotions serve. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

What is moral about guilt? Acting “prosocially” at the disadvantage of others.

For centuries economists and psychologists have argued that the morality of moral emotions lies in the fact that they stimulate prosocial behavior and benefit others in a person's social environment. Many studies have shown that guilt, arguably the most exemplary moral emotion, indeed motivates prosocial behavior in dyadic social dilemma situations. When multiple persons are involved, however, the moral and prosocial nature of this emotion can be questioned. The present article shows how guilt can have beneficial effects for the victim of one's actions but also disadvantageous effects for other people in the social environment. A series of experiments, with various emotion inductions and dependent measures, all reveal that guilt motivates prosocial behavior toward the victim at the expense of others around—but not at the expense of oneself. These findings illustrate that a thorough understanding of the functioning of emotions is necessary to understand their moral nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of justification and self-control.

The authors propose that people use 2 routes in justifying self-gratification: 1st through hard work or excellence (entitlement) and the 2nd through the attainment of vices without depleting income. This framework was tested using real tasks and choices adopted from prior research on self-control. The results indicate that (a) higher effort and (bogus) excellence feedback increase preferences for vice rewards, but these effects are reversed or attenuated when the interchangeability of effort and income is implied; (b) willingness to pay in effort is greater for vices than virtues, but willingness to pay in income is higher for virtues; and (c) these effects are magnified among individuals with stronger (chronic or manipulated) guilt. The authors discuss the ability of the justification routes to explain the findings of prior self-control research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theodor Reik: On psychoanalysis and the unconscious compulsion to confess.

In 1924, Theodor Reik presented a series of lectures in Vienna, which resulted in the publication of the book, The Compulsion to Confess (1925/1959). It was Reik's claim that his conceptualization of the unconscious compulsion to confess was a "discovery" and suggested that it be incorporated in the theory and lexicon of classical psychoanalytic theory. It is from the socialization experiences of the child (the modification of instinctual impulses) that repression is experienced and thus the process of confession is an attempt to quell (unconsciously) feelings of guilt and need for self-punishment. The power of a hostile superego plays the pivotal role, according to Reik, in the development of the neurosis, and it is within the framework and dynamics of the Oedipal complex that unconscious confessions result. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The equivalence of guilt and anxiety as psychological constructs.

The study investigates the relationship between anxiety and feelings of guilt by comparing the MA scale with a scale of items selected from the MMPI by clinical judges to measure the construct of feelings of guilt. A comparison was made of the 2 scales using the MMPI protocols of 70 VA psychiatric inpatients, 70 male psychiatric nursing aide applicants, and 70 female aide applicants. For the combined 3 groups there was a correlation of .75 which increases to .93 when correction is made for attenuation. The results were interpreted as showing that as far as self-report measures are concerned, scales involving clinical constructs of guilt and anxiety measure the same psychological entity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)