The Expression Of Shame

In an article titled “A New Measure of the Expression of Shame: The Shame Code” authors Kalee De France, Dianna Lanteigne, Jenny Glozman, and Tom Hollenstein conducted a study in 2016 to examine the Shame Code, a new behavioral coding system of the expression of shame. There were 149 participants between the ages of 12 and 17, and half were female. They elicited shame with a spontaneous speech task. The authors describe that shame involves global, self-focused negative attributions based on the anticipated, imagine, or real negative evaluations of others and is accompanied by a powerful urge to hide, withdraw, or escape from the source of these evaluations. However, they suggest that experiencing some degree of shame is functional for socio-emotional
development. The Shame Code was developed to capture behavior as it unfolds in real time during the socially stressful and potentially shaming spontaneous speech task and was coded into categories such as: body tension, facial tension, stillness, fidgeting, nervous positive affect, hiding and avoiding, verbal flow and uncertainty, and silence. There were two research questions that these authors wanted to answer. First, they wanted to find out if the newly developed Shame Code was reliable and related to self-reported experience of shame during the speech. Secondly, they wanted to know how shame behavior in the laboratory would relate to the individual differences in the self-reported trait of shame-proneness. To find the answers, they looked at the total amount of shame across all code categories and assessed how specific nations of the eight shame behaviors tended to co-occur. The procedure consisted of a room with obscured cameras and microphones, and participants who completed questionnaires on a computer. Next, psychophysiological sensors were placed on each participant to measure skin conductance, heart rate, and respiration rate. The experimenter asked the participants to say a 3 minute speech on any topic without preparation. Afterwards, each participant was asked to complete a state-based self-report measure of the level of shame they experienced while doing the speech task. In their results they found that body tension was the most commonly scored Shame Code variable, and stillness was the least observed.
Using a certain technique, they decided to label two factors to simplify their findings. The first factor was Fidget, and was comprised on Hiding and Fidget (positively loaded), and Nervous Positive and Stillness (negatively loaded). The second factor, which we labeled Freeze, was comprised of Stillness, Facial Tension, and Silent (all positively loaded). They then found that the Fidget factor was predicted by Trait Shame, and the Freeze factor was predicted by State Shame and Trait Shame. This study aimed to assess the ability of a behavioral coding system, the Shame Code, to find the degree to which adolescents experienced shame during a socially stressful situation. They found that they were successful in developing an observational coding system that could be used to measure shame behaviors in real time. The coding scheme proved to be effective at detecting the experiences of shame, and the total Shame Code score was positively associated with State Shame. The coding system was related to state and trait shame, however, it did so differentially based on two factors, Fidget and Freeze. The Freezing behaviors, stillness, facial tension, and silence, convey a sense of helplessness that may elicit sympathetic or comforting actions. However, if these behaviors persist, they might repel others from continuing such comfort. Fidgeting, hiding and nervous positive behaviors might also lead youth to have a hard time forming relationships. The importance of peer relationships is greatest at the age of the participants they studied, which is why they believe that social impact of shame behaviors may be most
salient.