Structure of guilt eliciting situations in Japanese adolescents

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to specify guilt eliciting situations for Japanese adolescents, and examine the relationship between guilt-proneness in the situations and personality traits. With an open-ended questionnaire, 315 guilt experiences were collected and categorized into 37 situations. Situational Guilt Inventory (SGI) for the 37 was developed and administered to 500 Japanese adolescents Factor analysis found four factors: hurting others, inconsiderate to others, acting selfishly, and debt feeling toward others. SGI scores had positive correlations with private and public self-consciousness and depression. However, correlations with the Big Five were low, none higher than .2, except those with conscientiousness. The factors were similar to those of Dimension of Conscience Questionnaire (DCQ; Gore & Harvey, 1995) and Situational Guilt Scale (SGS; Klass, 1987), except that they do not have the fourth: debt feeling. These results showed some characteristics of guilt among Japanese people, as well as reliability of the inventory.