Background Shame is a powerful emotion involved in a wide variety of phenomena including psychopathology. The propensity to react with shame to situations of transgression is formed early in life, but the processes by which elevated shame-proneness causes higher levels of psychological distress and functional impairment in some people rather than in others is as yet poorly understood. Objectives The main objective of this thesis was to further elucidate these processes by investigating the implications for shame states, guilt, general coping strategies, attachment styles, and shame-related coping in this context, as well as to evaluate an assessment method for shame-proneness. Methods The self-report questionnaires Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA), Compass of Shame Scale (CoSS-5), Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), and an interview measure for event-related shame and guilt were used for assessment in adult normative, healthy-only, crime victim, and patient samples (n=25-361). A combination of uni- and bivariate approaches and multivariate soft and hard modeling approaches were used for statistical analysis. Results Paper I showed that the TOSCA could be used as a reliable measure for shame-proneness. Paper II showed that guilt was unrelated to post-victimization distress. Elevated shame-proneness was related to higher levels of post-victimization distress. This effect was partially mediated by event-related shame. Paper III showed that in CFS patients, higher levels of shame-proneness, escape-avoidance, and accepting responsibility coping contributed to elevated levels of psychological distress. Seeking support, positive reappraisal coping, and proneness to detachment contributed in the opposite direction. These relationships were weaker in the comparison groups. Paper IV showed that shame-proneness was associated with secure attachment style in a negative direction. Higher levels of secure attachment style contributed to lower levels of psychological distress, whereas shame-proneness, insecure attachment styles and withdrawal, attack self, and attack other shame coping strategies contributed in the opposite direction. There were mean differences between women and men regarding most of the variables, butiithe relationships between variables did not differ between men and women. Conclusions The association between shame-proneness and psycho-logical distress seem to involve a complex balancing act between motives toward preserving close relationships and protecting a relatively positive sense of self. If others are perceived as trustworthy and compassionate and are utilized for support in times of need, the effects of shame-proneness may be less debilitating, whereas if others are perceived as distancing or disapproving, and life stress and social transgressions are managed by escape strategies, social withdrawal, self-blame or by transferring blame onto others, the distress effects become more severe. The inner psychodynamics of these functional patterns seem to be rather similar in women and men.

Bakgrund: En vårdande relation är inte detsamma som en vänskapsrelation, men förutsätter ändå närhet och engagemang. Personligt engagemang är också nödvändigt för att utvecklas som vårdare. Sorg är en naturlig reaktion vid förlust av relationer, men det är inte självklart att vårdare vet om de får eller bör känna och uttrycka sorg när patienter dör. Det saknas en samlad bild av vårdares sorg över döende och avlidna patienter. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva hur vårdares egen sorg över döende och avlidna patienter gestaltar sig. Metod: Beskrivande litteraturöversikt av elva artiklar som analyserades med en form av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Vårdarens sorg gestaltar sig i form av inre känslor som att känna smärta och tyngande känslor samt skuld och ilska. Sorgen kan även visa sig i form av yttre uttryck där vårdaren exempelvis gråter eller känner sig rastlös. Den kan också yttra sig i ett tidsperspektiv där vårdarens sorg över en specifik patient förändras med tiden samt ett längre perspektiv där vårdarens tidigare erfarenheter påverkar hur han eller hon upplever sorgen. Klinisk betydelse: Denna studie kan vara ett stöd för vårdare som undrar om de får eller bör känna och uttrycka sorg över döende och avlidna patienter. Den kan också användas av vårdare som nått expertstadiet och som fungerar som handledare. Vid denna nivå av expertis bör enligt denna studies resultat uppmuntran och stöd ges till mindre erfarna vårdare, för att hjälpa dem att våga känna och uttrycka sin sorg. / Background: A caring relationship is not the same as a friendship relationship, but still requires intimacy and commitment. Personal commitment is also necessary to develop as a health care worker. Grief is a natural reaction to loss of relationships, but caregivers do not necessarily know if they are allowed to or should feel and express grief when patients die. There is no complete picture of health care workers’ grief over dying and deceased patients. Objective: The objective was to describe how health care workers’ own grief for the dying or deceased patients manifests itself. Method: A descriptive literature review of eleven articles, analyzed with a form of qualitative content analysis. Findings: Health care workers’ grief manifests itself as inner feelings such as pain, burdensome feelings, and guilt and anger. Grief can also manifest itself as an outward expression where the caregiver for example cries or feels restless. It can also manifest itself through time, when the health care worker’s grief for a particular patient is changing over time, but also in a life-time perspective, when the health care worker’s past experiences affect how he or she experiences the grief. Clinical significance: This study may provide support to health care workers who are wondering if they are allowed to or should feel and express grief for dying and deceased patients. It can also be used by health care workers who have reached the expert stage and are supervisors themselves. At this level of expertise, according to the results of this study, encouragement and support should be given to less experienced health care workers, to help them gain the courage to feel and express their grief.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore if there are emotional dilemmas in environmentally aware individuals, stemming from conflicts, resulting in their environmental personal transportation behaviour. This study uses the dialogic, relational interview method to explore possible conflicts in participants' personal transportation choices. The analysis seems to indicate that there is an apparent emotional tangle in individuals when confronted with possible double binds that put their environmental beliefs in conflict with other important aspects in their lives. The personal dilemmas they feel revolve around social pressures and their personal identities and leave them feeling conflicting emotions and strong amounts of guilt. The findings show the importance of reframing pro-environmental activities in ways that help negate the secondary injunctions that may people feel.

Egalitarianism is highly valued in Canada and yet some groups are profoundly disadvantaged. This can be explained by sociological and psychological theorizing that claims advantaged group members are motivated to maintain a system of inequality from which they benefit. The challenge is to explain the few advantaged group members who defy self-interest and support disadvantaged groups. My research objectives were to understand what motivates selected advantaged group members to support disadvantaged groups, and to understand how the majority of advantaged group members maintain their belief in egalitarianism in the face of clear social inequality. Results revealed that most advantaged group members value egalitarianism highly, but only those who define egalitarianism in terms of social responsibility unequivocally support the interests of disadvantaged groups. Most advantaged group members conceive egalitarianism in terms of equality of opportunity, rights or treatment, allowing them to legitimize inequality; consequently, they are less willing to sympathize with the demands for fair treatment by disadvantaged group.

My novel The Heaven I Swallowed tells the story of Grace Teresa Mary McAllister, a World War II widow who decides to “save” a young Aboriginal girl, Mary, by adopting her into her home, believing she will be able to redeem the child by giving her all the benefits of white society. In Part I of the novel Mary arrives and it soon becomes obvious that her presence is bringing back the deceptions in Grace’s past. In Part II five years have passed and Grace is struggling to cope with the way she treated Mary. Exploring the myth of “for their own good” The Heaven I Swallowed is a tale of the Stolen Generations, told from the perspective of the white perpetrator. The exegesis accompanying the novel, ‘Whose Shoes? Writing The Heaven I Swallowed’, is also divided into two parts. Part I traces my awareness of the Stolen Generation stories and the reasoning behind the decision to narratively take the perspective of a white woman who steals an Aboriginal child. In Part II, I turn to two contemporary literary texts – Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and Gail Jones’s Sorry – to examine different strategies that the non-indigenous writer might employ to counter-act stereotypical representation of Aboriginality. Further analysis of the novel in the lead up to the final draft is then aided by another two texts: Elizabeth Jolley’s The Well and Joyce Carol Oates’s Black Girl/ White Girl. Using these as models – one in regards to a Gothic re-rendering of the work and the other in regards to the depiction of ambiguous race relations – I find a way to reconcile myself with the representation of Aboriginality in The Heaven I Swallowed. Finally, I come to the conclusion that the novelist might often travel a great deal away from their original intent but that these footsteps have to be taken to ensure motivations are justified and one’s conscience is at ease. / Thesis (Ph.D. ) - University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2009

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Maine, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-134).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2006. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2003. / Title from title screen (viewed 8 May 2008). Roman numbering forms part of the numbering sequence, the arabic numbering starts from leaf 12. Includes tables, information sheet, letters, consent form and questionnaires. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Centre for Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-92).