The Relationship between Self-Compassion, Self-esteem and Self-Conscious Emotions Regulation

The present study examined the relationship between Self-Compassion, Self-esteem, Shame-Proneness and Guilt-Proneness with experiencing shame and guilt after reminding the experience of fault and transgression. To do so, in a quasi-experimental design, 80 students (26 males and 54 females) of the University of Tehran filled Self-Compassion and Self-Esteem Scales and Shame-Proneness and Guilt-Proneness subscales of the Test of Self- Conscious Affect-3. After shame and guilt induction by reminding and writing about an experience of fault and transgression, Participants reported their unpleasant emotions by the adjective-checklist of shame and guilt based on Tangney`s theory and the scale of unpleasant emotions. The Results revealed that shame-proneness was positively and self-compassion was negatively associated with the unpleasant emotions. Self-esteem was correlated negatively with the shame only and guilt-proneness showed no significant relationship with the unpleasant emotions. As hypothesized, self-compassion predicted unpleasant emotions that are beyond the shame-proneness and guilt proneness, while self-esteem wasn’t the predictor of the unpleasant emotions. The results were explained based on the different nature of self-compassion and self-esteem constructs.