Abstract

The psychological mechanisms connecting shame and anger among men remain underexplored. This study aimed to understand the potential roles of psychological distress and alexithymia in this pathway, both in the form of difficulty identifying and describing one’s feelings. Self-report measures were completed by 1,000 men (age mean = 49.6 years; range = 19–86 years). Conditional process analysis investigated a moderated mediation effect to determine whether men’s distress mediated the relationship between shame and anger, and whether this effect differed according to severity and type of alexithymia. Findings indicated moderated mediation, with psychological distress a significant mediator in the association between shame and anger. Furthermore, difficulties describing feelings (but not identifying feelings) moderated the relationship between shame and psychological distress. Men’s shame can be expressed via anger when experiencing psychological distress, and the inability to express one’s feelings exacerbates this pathway. Clinical and public health avenues to reduce the impact of alexithymia are discussed.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2021.1977598 .

摘要

连接男性羞耻和愤怒的心理机制仍未得到充分探索。本研究旨在了解心理困扰和述情障碍在这一途径中的潜在作用，包括难以识别和描述自己的感受。1,000 名男性完成了自我报告测量（平均年龄 = 49.6 岁；范围 = 19-86 岁）。条件过程分析研究了一种有调节的中介效应，以确定男性的痛苦是否介导了羞耻和愤怒之间的关系，以及这种效应是否因述情障碍的严重程度和类型而异。研究结果表明有适度的中介作用，心理痛苦是羞耻和愤怒之间关联的重要中介。此外，描述感受（但不能识别感受）的困难缓和了羞耻和心理困扰之间的关系。男人的耻辱是可以表达的在经历心理困扰时通过愤怒，而无法表达自己的感受会加剧这种途径。讨论了减少述情障碍影响的临床和公共卫生途径。

本文的补充数据可在 https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2021.1977598 在线获取。