The role of rumination in the guilt associated with bereavement according to cause of death

Guilt is an emotional reaction that entails feelings of tension, remorse and regret (Duncan  and Cacciatore, 2015). It is generally considered to be an adaptive response, insofar as it correlates with empathy and prosocial behaviour (Behrendt and Ben-Ari, 2012, Brown, 2006, Tangney et al., 2007), triggering feelings that enable people to use their behaviour to offset the harm caused, in contrast to shame, in which the possibility of remedying the harm is perceived to be remote or impossible (Tangney and Salovey, 1999).

Source: Psychiatry Research - May 22, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Dulce Camacho, Miguel Á. Pérez-Nieto, Fernando Gordillo Source Type: research