Shame as a Cultural Artifact: A Call for Self-Awareness and Reflexivity in Personality Assessment.

Aschieri, Filippo. “Shame as a Cultural Artifact: A Call for Self-Awareness and Reflexivity in Personality Assessment.” Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 89, no. 6, 2016, pp. 567-575. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, DOI: 10.1080/00223891.2016.1146289.

As stressed by

Sue and colleagues (2007), microaggressions can be extended

beyond discrimination based on race or ethnic differences to

any human relationship involving any difference in status,

power, or culture. As such, implicit, automatic, unintentional

communication processes such as microaggression could contribute

to clients experiencing shame.

This article shows that understanding the historical roots of

assessment practices could help clarify—at least to a certain

extent—how our standard ways of working with clients might

create the context for microaggressions to occur and shame to

be instilled in clients. Within this framework, understanding

the historical roots of the assessment practices might enhance

assessors’ awareness of the potential consequences of their clinical

choices and help them adjust their behaviors to the clients’

needs. 568

Developmental psychology and sociology have focused on the

role of shame in human development and interpersonal relationships

(Scheff, 1988; Schore, 1998). Shame has been defined

as the first “social emotion” (Scheff, 1988), emerging in children

as early as 14 to 16 months old. It is described as a complex

physiological-emotional response to a perceived

interruption of the relational contact and attunement with

caregivers. 569

Nathanson (1992)

suggested that although shame is a socially acquired state, it

quickly becomes internalized by children to prevent experiencing

the negative emotions associated with expected rejection

and disappointment. Hence, shame represents one of the primary

mechanisms of inhibition of emotional expression

(Morrison, 1989). 570

shame can be one of the mechanisms motivating clients

to produce a “defensive” profile on a self-report measure, where

they present themselves in unrealistically positive terms 570

As Finn (2012b) explained, in TA, identifying and addressing

shame is considered particularly important due to its nature

as a “blocking experience.” In fact, when shame is activated, it

undercuts the relational and emotional connection between

assessor and client, which forms an important element for therapeutic

change to happen. Therefore, shame needs to be

addressed as quickly as possible to (a) restore communication,

(b) allow dyadic regulation, (c) begin the integration of previously

dissociated affect states, and (d) support the drafting of a

new and more compassionate self-story. 570