Transmitere Intergenerationala a Abuzelor

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Violence and Victims, V ol. 10, No. 2, 1995 1995 Springer Publishing Company

The Role of Shame and Guilt in theIntergenerational Transmission ofAbusiveness

Donald G. DuttonCynthia van GinkelAndrew StarzomskiDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of B ritish Columbia

Shame-proneness has been found to be related to anger arousal and a tendency to exter-nalize attributions for one's ow n behavior, both common features of men who assaulttheir wives. The present study examined a potential origin of a shame-prone style byanalysing reports of shaming experiences by ones' parents as reported by a populationof assaultive males. Significant relationships were found for recollections of shamingactions by parents on adult anger, abusiveness (a s reported by the men's wives), and aconstellation of personality variables related to abusiveness in prior research. Theseassociations maintained even after corrections w ere made for response sets such as socialdesirability. These shaming actions were largely comprised of recollections of parentalpunishment that w ere public, rand om, or global. The role o f shame experiences in d isturbances of self-identity and rage is d iscussed.

Men who assault their w ives experience high levels of chronic anger (D utton, 1994a, 1995),high levels of chronic traum a symptom s (Dutton, 1995b), a tendency to externalize thecause of their violence (Dutton, 1986; Sonkin, 1985, 1995; Starzomski & Du tto n, 1994)and an adm ix tu re of shame and gu il t about their violence (Dutton & Hemphill, 1992). Inthe lat ter study, the authors argued that underreport ing of violence influenced by sociald esirabil ity in an abusive population may be ind icative of shame or gu ilt regard ing reportedbehaviors (Dut ton & Hem phi l l, p. 31).

Dut ton (1994a) also found that abusive men demonstrated disturbances of the self some-times referred to as borderl ine personali ty organization (BPO) (Oldham et al., 1985), and

indicat ing dis turbances of id enti ty, t ransient psychotic experiences, and the use of prim-i t ive d efenses such as spli t t ing an d projection . Dutton (1994a) and Du t ton & Starzomski

f d b f l d h f f l


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72 2 D. G. Button et al.

In related stud ies (Dutto n, 1994b; D utto n, Starzomski & Ryan, in press) both BPO andchronic anger were found to be related to experiences in the fam ily o f origin; specif ically,parental coldness and rejection. Using a measure of recollect ions of parental treatment calledthe EMBU, after it s original Sw edish name (Ferris, Jacobsson, Lindstrom, von K norring,& Ferris, 1980), strong and significant correlations w ere found between features of abuse,d irect m easures of abuse, and recollections of parental treatment. These associations per-sisted after corrections for socially desirable reporting tendencies and did not seem to rep-resent a response style (Dut ton & Starzo mski, 1994). T he EMBU assesses, inter alia, rec-ollections of parental warmth and rejection. Some of the items appear, prima facie, to taguil t- inducing and shame-ind ucing behaviors by each parent, w hile others t ap generally lov -ing or rejecting actions. Hence, the possibility exists that the recollection of shame-induc-ing ac tions by parents may be related to abusiven ess and its related features.

Some recent work by T angney (1991) has detailed chronic shame-proneness as a poten-

tial mediator betw een the early experiences of assaultive men and th eir adu lt experience ofanger and abusiveness. Tangney (1991) differentiates shame-proneness and guilt-pronenessas tw o moral affective styles, where the former has to do w ith global, painful and devastat-ing experience in w hich the self, no t just behavior, is painfully scrutinized and negatively eval-uated (p. 599). In this sense, shame-ind ucing experiences w hich generate a shame-prone stylemay be viewed as attacks on the global self and should produce d isturbances in self-id entity.

Tangney (1991) also speculated that shame-prone individuals w ould be more likely toexternalize blame, as any ad mission o f cu lpability w ould regenerate shame. Tangney, Wagner& Gramzow (1989) developed a self-report inventory called the TOSCA (Test of SelfConscious Affect ) to assess chronic affective reactions to interpersonal events. Based onTOSCA scores, shame-prone ind ivid uals w ere found to d emonstrate a high propensity foranger and self- reports of aggression (T angney, Wagner, Fletcher, & Gramzow , 1992).

A ll of T angney's research involv ed und ergrad uate populations, and no attempts were mad eto assess poten tial shame-ind ucing experiences in the family o f origin of these subjects. T heobjective of the present stud y is to assess reco llections of sham ing experiences in a sampof men in treatment for w ife assault. By recalculating the EMBU into specific categories f orshame and guil t- ind ucing actions and actions w hich made the respondent feel unloved, thepresent stud y examines the relationship of the recollection of specific af fect- generating par-enting actions to the TOSCA, to associated features of abusiveness (anger, chronic traum

symptoms, borderline personality) and to abusiveness itself, as reported by the men's femalepartners.

METHOD

Testing and assessment included:

Recollections of Early Experiences

T he Egna Minnen Betraffande

Uppfostran EMBU: Memories of My Upbringing) (Ferriset al., 1980) scale w as used to provid e a quantitativ e measure of the respond ents' memo-ries of their upbringing scored separately for mother and father The EMBU was originally


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Shame, Guilt, and Abuse 125

35 (range 17-65), average level of education = grade 12 , average income w as $34,285 (63%self-identified as blue-collar, 37% as white-collar), average assaultiveness in prior year =11.5 (S.D. = 9.2) acts of ph ysical violenc e against their w i fe (self-reported on the Conf lictTactics Scale [Straus, 1979]); 56% w ere still l iving w ith the assault v ictim.

Criterion inform ation on the mams abusiveness w as supplied by 76 female partners ofmen in this study. These women were 31 years of age on average and d emographicallysimilar to their husb and s. T he w omen w ere interview ed as part of a general treatment assessment process.

RESULTS

Mean scores on key v ariables w ere as follow s for this group: BPO 71.5 (16.6), A nger 81.3(19.2), Shame 34.5 (12.3), Guilt 15.1 (4.8), U nlov ed 71.6 (37.6), Marlow e-Crowne 13.8 (4.8).Table 1 show s correlations betw een Shame experiences, anger (MAI) and BPO, TraumaSymptom Checklist scores, an d measures of abusiveness (CTS scores an d PsychologicalMaltreatment of Women Inventory). All reported correlations have been corrected f or socialdesirability effects (see Dutton & Starzomski, 1994). While all three scales correlated sig-

Table 1. Correlations of Shame, Guilt and Unloved Experiences to Associated Features ofAbusiveness (Anger, Trauma Symptoms and Borderline Scales) and to

Abusiveness in a Population of Assaultive Men N = 140)

Sham e G uilt U nlov ed

M other Father M other Father Mother Father

BPO totalIdentity d i ffus ionPrimitive defensesReality testingAnger (MAI)

InOutMagni tudeFrequency

HostilityTSC total

Sleep deprivationDepressionAnxietyDissociationPSAT

PMWI1PMWI2CTS: Man's self report

Wife's self-report

CTS: FOO: DYMY

.33***34***

35***.20*35***31***

.14

.33***32***

33***27**

.0929*

.28*

.21*

.1839***34***

.38**

.24*

59***

.55***

.54***45***

.51***36***36***27**

.30**28**

32***.17.154]***

.36***27**

.24*35***33***

.31*

.26*

.66***

29**32***

.30**

.1427**

.18

.19*2 5**28**

.26**

.25*

.08

.28*

.26*

.20*

.1433**32**

.12

.18

50***

.46***49***39***37***34***

.25**37***

.26**

.24*3 ***

.10

.02

.33**

.30**

.24*

.20*31 **30**

.09

.174] ***

.24*

.24*

.19*

.23*

.21*

.17

.02

.17

.19*

.21*29**

.15

.19

.19

.21*

.22*29***

.1041***

55***

.11

.20*

.24*

.14

.18

.19*

.20*-.122

.23*

.12

.09.17

.01

.34**

.25**31**

.30**27**

.0835***50***

.36**

MAI Multidimensional AngerInventory TSC TraumaSymptom ChecklistBPO Borderline Personal


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TABLE 4. Patterns of Correlation between Early Experiences of Abuse byParents and Adult Personality N = 140) and Abusiveness N = 76)

BPO

Verbal abuse .27*Physical abuse .23*

(With shame partialled out)Verbal abuse .14Physical abuse .0 0

(With guilt partialled out)Verbal abuse . 1 5

Physical abuse .04

BPO Borderline Personality Organization (self reportMaltreatment of Women Inv ento ry (Dom inance/Isolation).ment of Women Inv entory (Emotional Abuse).

V


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72 5 D. G. Du tton et a l.

social desirability from the assessment of parental treatm ent strengthens this relationship.Dutton (1995b) derived a scale to assess the propensity for abusiveness by correlatingwife assaulters' self-descriptors w ith their w ives ' reports of abuse victimization. T he result-ing scale, called the Propensity for Abusiveness Scale (PAS) has 29 items, of which 10derive from the EMBU. Of these, six are shame scale items.

Furthermore, partialling out physical an d verbal abuse by parents does not alter th e sig-nificant correlation between recollections of shaming and BPO or anger. Recollections ofshaming experiences correlated signif ica ntly w ith BPO scores, even after recall of bothphysic al and verbal abuse by parents w as partialled out. One interpretation of this result that sham ing experiences, w hich attack the global self, are most d irectly related to forma-tion of borderline personality organization. Since the significant correlation of shamingexperiences to abusiveness disappears with parental abusiveness partialled out, it may bethat parental abusiveness provides th e mod eling com ponen t through w hich borderline per-

sonality manifests itself in adult relationships. The shaming experiences contribute to thpersonality formation, and the parental abusiveness to the mod eling of behaviors to expressthe borderline anger.

Since both parental shaming an d abusiveness are naturally confounded (see Table 2 ),most boys experience both th e shaming attacks with their consequences for abusive per-sonality and the physical abuse on which they model behavior. This interpretation is sup-ported by the fin d ing that partialling ou t shaming diminishes the significance of reports ofparental abuse to BPO self-report scores. Hence, recollections of shaming may be moreimportant than recollections of physic al abuse in shaping what Du tton (1994b) has termed the abusiv e personality (p. 181). Conversely, when sha ming and guilt experiences d idnot occur, parenta l abusiveness has no significant correlation w ith ad ult abusiveness. Thesedata may be accounted for by a tw o-step model where shaming and guilt dev elop the abu-sive-prone personality, a necessary but not sufficient precu rsor of abusive behavior. Mod elingof abusive behavior is the required second d evelopmental step. In most abusive families,both steps occur con com itantly. T he current d ata howev er, being retrospective from a self-selected group, can only be suggestive of this mod el. We are curre ntly assessing non abu-sive men from dysfunctional families to further elucidate this model.

The abusive personality is characterized , inter alia, by high ch ronic anger and an attri-but ional t endency to ext ernaliz e blame (D utto n, 1994b; Starzomski & Dut ton, 1994).Tangney (1991) found shame-proneness measured on the TOSCA to be related to both angerand exte rnaliz ing tend encies. Van Ginkel (1994) found that shame and guilt-proneness onthe TOSCA were significantly related to both shame and guilt experienced in the familyof origin. T hese recollections of early experiences of shame and guilt bore signif icant cor-relations to a chronic affective style characterized by Tangney (1991) as shame-proneness,w hich may be the motiv ationa l source of externalizing.

Miller (1985) and others (e.g., Lew is 1987; Lew is 1992; Retzinger, 1991; Scheff, 1987;Tangney, Wagner, Fletcher, & Gramzon, 1992; T ompkins 1987; W urmser, 1981) have com-mented on the relationship of shame to anger, w hic h Schef f calls the shame-rage spiral

(p. 111). In general, these analyses d erive from Helen Block Lew is' description of humiliated fury (Lew is, 1971, p. 68). Tangney et al. (1992 ) found significant correlations betweenTOSCA h d h tilit l d t d i t bl th f


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them off by externalizing cause for negative events, thereby avoid ing personal responsi-bility w hich they experience as shameful.

The present data reveal three possible sources of shame-proneness in assaultive males.These are public scolding, random p unishm ent, and generic criticism. A ll three, it appears,generate experiences of shame in terms of global attacks on the self. Rand om punishm entfor example, does not allow the punished child to d ifferentiate the actions w hich led to thepunishment from more global aspects of themselves; hence, the effect generalizes to theentire self, to a sense of badness. Recollections of shaming experiences are correlatedwith adult anger and tendencies to project blame. This projection may serve the functionof warding off the re-experience of this sense.

Given the tend ency of shame-prone ind ivid uals to attempt to ward off personal responsibility, the abusiv e male is faced w ith a d ilemma as a result of his abusive behavior. Mostabusive men find their abusiveness personally unacceptable (Button, 1986; Dutton &

Hem phill, 1992). It violates their self-stand ards. Faced wi th the reality of their mistreat-ment of their w ives, w hich itself ind uces shame, most abusiv e men resort to denial or min-imizing . Surprisingly, little has been w ritten about the treatment ram ifications of shameproneness in assaultiv e men. W allace & Nosko (1993) argue that shame is associated withanxious attachm ent in batterers and that shame d rives the contrition phase of the abuse cycl(Walker, 1979). Our current data are c onsistent w ith this notion. Wallace & Nosko (1993)advocate group therapy as an effective technique fo r w orking with shame-prone individ u-als because of the safety and co-confessional aspects of groupwork. Before this advantagecan be realized , how ever, hurd les mu st be crossed. Hav ing to attend a group, and the requir

men t of the group that members reveal past transgressions, can itself be shame-inducingT he exercise of conf ession, typical in most treatment groups can allow men to overcomtheir shame through w hat the authors call vicarious detoxification ; listeners encountetheir own shame as each m ember of the group confesses. Projective identification permitmen to en coun ter parts of them selves otherw ise split off throu gh hearing other m en's con-fessions, and sets the stage for working through shame issues. Furthermore, the require-ment that each man c onfess b uild s group solidarity. Ev entually, anger, rage and violence,the original def enses against shame, no long er become necessary.

R F R N S

Briere, J. (1992). Child abuse trauma. N ew bury Park, CA: Sage.Briere, J., & Runtz, M. (1989). T he trauma symptom checklist (TSC-33): Early data on a

new scale. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 4, 151-162.Dutton, D. G. (1986). Wife assaulters' explanations for assault: The neutralization of sel

punishment. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 18, 381-390.Dut ton , D. G. (1994a). Behavioral and affective correlates of Borderline Personality

Organization in wife assaulters. International Journal of Law and P sychiatry, 17 , 265-

279.Dutton, D. G. (1994b). The origin and structure of the abusive personality. Journal ofP lit Di d 8 181 191


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Dut ton , D. G. (1995c). Trauma symptoms and PTSD profiles in perpetrators of abuse.Journal of Traumatic Stress, 8 2), 299-315.

Dutton, D. G., & Hem phill, K. J. (1992). Patterns of socially desirable responding amongperpetrators and victims of wife assault. Violence and Victims, 7, 29-39.

Dutton, D. G., & Starzomski, A . (1993). Perpetrator characteristics associated w ith w omen 'sreports of psychological and physical abuse. Violence and Victims, 8, 327-337.

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Dutton, D . G ., Starzomski, A ., & Ryan, L. (in press). A nteced ents of abusiv e behavior andabusive p ersonality in w i fe assaulters. Family Violence.

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Lew is, H. B. (1987). Shame and the narcissistic personality. In D. N athanson (Ed.), Themany faces of shame (pp. 233-255). N ew York: G uilford.

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Straus, M. A ., Gelles, R. J., & Steinmetz, S. (1980). Behind closed doors: Violence in theAmerican family. Garden City, NY : A nchor Press.

Tangney, J. (1991). Moral affect: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology, 61, 598-607.

Tangney, J., W agner, P., Fletcher, C., & Gramzow , R. (1992). Shamed into anger? The relation of shame and guilt to anger and self-reported aggression. Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology, 62, 669-675.

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Acknowledgment. T his research w as implemented through grants from th e Solicitor General of Canadaand Health and Welfare Canada.

Offprints. Requests fo r off prints should be directed to Dr. Donald G. D utton, Department of Psychology,Univers i ty of Brit ish Colum bia, 2136 W est M all, Vancouv er, B. C., V6T 1Z4, Canada.


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