*WINNER* Examining the Relationship Between Identity and Shame Resilience

Abstract

In recent decades, shame resilience has been implicated as an important factor of mental health. However, it is unclear what factors predict resilience when feeling shame. Identity could be a key factor. Shame is a social emotion, and one's sense of collective versus individual identity could influence how one deals with the experience of this emotion. This study investigated the potential relationship between one's identity orientation and level of shame resilience. If one's identity orientation is related to shame resilience, this could have implications for helping people cope with feeling shame and providing support for mental health. This correlational study gave established self-report scales measuring identity orientation and shame resilience to ~150 college students in the United States. We predicted that those who scored high in the collective and the relational identity categories would score higher in shame resilience than those who scored low in these areas and that those who scored high in the personal and social identity orientations would have lower shame resilience scores than those who scored low in these areas.