Distinguishing shame, guilt and humiliation: Responsibility vs. self-critical blaming

It is important to clarify the distinctions between different types of self-conscious emotion (Tracy et al., 2007). There are three major forms that are especially important: shame, guilt and humiliation. Shame and humiliation are very much to do with self and defending the self (see Figure 5) whereas guilt is about one's behaviour, awareness of harm to the other, and motivated desires to repair harm (Gilbert, 2007c, 2009a, 2009b; Tangney & Dearing, 2002). As a rough guide, keep in mind that shame, humiliation and guilt will each have a different attention focus, a different way of thinking and different behaviours. As a rough guide see Table 1.