This experimental study examined the role of negative feedback and social rank in the experience of self-conscious emotions, shame and guilt, in typically developing children aged 8 to 13 years. Participants were tested by means of a vignette paradigm in which feedback and social rank were systematically manipulated and levels of shame and guilt were assessed after listening to each of the vignettes. In addition, children completed a set of questionnaires for measuring individual differences in shame and guilt proneness, social comparison, submissive behavior, and external shame. The results showed that children presented with negative feedback reported higher ratings of shame and guilt than when presented with positive feedback, implying that the provision of negative feedback has a significant impact on children’s experience of self-conscious emotions. Social rank had less effect on children’s report of these self-conscious emotions. Furthermore, the individual difference variables of guilt proneness, and to a lesser extent shame proneness and submissive behavior, appeared to be positively related to self-conscious emotions as reported during the vignette task.

这项实验研究检查了负面反馈和社会等级在 8 至 13 岁的典型发育儿童中的自觉情绪、羞耻和内疚体验中的作用。参与者通过小插曲范式进行测试，其中系统地操纵反馈和社会等级，并在听完每个小插曲后评估羞耻和内疚的程度。此外，儿童完成了一组问卷，用于测量羞耻和内疚倾向、社会比较、顺从行为和外在羞耻方面的个体差异。结果表明，与正面反馈相比，接受负面反馈的儿童报告的羞耻感和内疚感更高，这意味着负面反馈的提供对儿童的自觉情绪体验有显着影响。社会等级对儿童报告这些自觉情绪的影响较小。此外，内疚倾向的个体差异变量，以及在较小程度上的羞耻倾向和顺从行为，似乎与小插曲任务期间报告的自我意识情绪呈正相关。