The role of agency and coping strategies in verbal communication of shame in
Ghana
Bachelor Thesis - Social Psychology Lea Vajda
22-12-2016
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Supervisor: Milena Feldkamp & Disa Sauter Student number: 10400184
Index
Abstract... 3
I. Introduction ... 4
Agency & Self-worth... 4
Relation agency & self-worth... 5
Shame & Christianity... 6
Ghana: Fusion of Religions... 8
II. Methods... 10
Participants... 10
Procedure...10
Materials... 11
Measures & Design... 12
III. Results... 13
Manipulation check...14
Agency ...16
Self-worth ...16
Relation ...17
IV. Conclusion &Discussion... 19
Findings & Limitations... 20
Conclusions and Relevance ... 22
Literature ... 24
Abstract
This study investigated the role of agency and coping strategies in verbal
communication of shame in Ghana. To assess how Ghanaians talk about agency and coping when experiencing shame, speech-samples of 24 Ghanaian high-school teachers were analysed. To see if Ghanaians verbalize agency comparable to Western-Christian concepts, frequency of mentioning others versus self as responsible for the shame-event was measured. Whether Ghanaians engage in harm to self-worth, frequency of mentioning coping strategies related to a decrease or an increase of self-esteem, were measured. It was expected that Ghanaians tend to verbalize agency externally, which was not indicated by the results. Agency-other did not differ significantly from agency-self. Second, it was presumed that Ghanaians tend to verbalize coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem, which was indicated by the results. The verbalization of strategies differed significantly. Third it was assumed that agency serves as a predictor for coping strategies, which the results did not indicated. It can be concluded that Ghanaians verbalize increasing self-esteem related coping strategies when talking about shame. If Ghanaians tend to verbalize agency comparable to Western-Christian concepts is still unclear, as well as the role of agency in coping strategies.
Mea Culpa is a Latin phrase, which is used in the Christian confession and means “through my fault” (Lewis & Short, 1969). The saying touches upon the burden of individual responsibility for one’s own actions, which can get judged as wrong and need forgiveness of God. The notion of realizing and accusing one’s wrongdoing in moral Christian thought was internalized in Western-Christian societies (Freud, 1930). This internalization process results in self-judgment and self-accusation and the emotion shame arises out of this process. In order to be able to accuse oneself depends on the capacity of being aware of one’s own actions. Gaining awareness of oneself is a cognitive development defining self-conscious emotions (Niedenthal et al. 2006). Shame is considered a self-conscious emotion since one can only experience shame when being aware of oneself. Further, shame is considered a ‘moral emotion’ since individuals judge their behaviour in terms of right or wrong, based on the norms deriving from their immediate social context (Niedenthal et al., 2006).
Agency & Self-worth
In order to accuse oneself for wrongdoing one needs to take and feel responsibility for one’s action and place the cause of events in oneself (Niedenthal et al., 2006). By placing the cause and responsibility of a certain event in oneself another factor is implied, namely internal locus of control. This form of control refers to the implicit belief that one has control over the outcome of events in one’s life (Heine, 2011). Research suggests that shame is tied to the concepts of internal responsibility, internal causation and internal locus of control (Niedenthal et al., 2006). These factors can be summed up in the notion of agency.
The experience of self-conscious emotions can either have a positive or a negative effect on one’s self-worth. By evaluating oneself positively, an enhancement of the self can ensue. On the other hand, through a negative evaluation and accusation of oneself, the ‘moral’ emotions guilt, embarrassment and shame can occur. (Niedenthal et al. 2006). Shame is considered the most sincere form of moral emotion since the core self is touched upon (Klass,
1990; Modigliani, 1968) and the entire self is seized as bad, worthless and small (Niedenthal et al., 2006). Shame is considered a ‘punishing’ emotion, since it is accompanied by
rumination about one’s wrongdoing and mental self-punishment. Mostly, shame is linked to situations such as public failure or social rejection and is described as painful, distressing and brutal to one’s self-worth and can result in a decrease of one’s self-esteem.
The relation of agency & self-worth
Depending on the concept one has about the agent of an event, the self gets affected differently. Seeing oneself as the agent of a negative event can result in a self-harming evaluation (Niedenthal et al., 2006). By attributing internally, one accuses oneself, feels responsible and this can result in a decrease of self-esteem (Garnefski et al. 2001).
Consequently by attributing the cause of a negative event externally, the self does not account as responsible. By not feeling responsible, one cannot blame oneself for the wrongdoing (Heine, 2012). Therefore harm to one’s self-worth doesn’t seem to be evident when
attributing externally. Experiencing decrease of one’s self-esteem seems to be dependant on the concepts one has about agency.
Concepts of self-conscious emotions seem to be culturally dependent and influence the experience and expression of these emotions (Niedenthal et al., 2006). Religion and
indigenous belief systems have created social norms in different societies around the world and influence the expression of emotions. Not only norms, also concepts of locus of control and agency are influenced by culture (Heine, 2011; Ratner, 2000). It seems that Christian- Western concepts have their share in internal attribution and harm to one’s self-worth in the experience of shame (Ratner, 2000).
Shame & Christianity
The emotion shame as described above is crucial in the notion of agency internally and decreasing of self-esteem. The implicit idea of responsibility for one’s action, having control for one’s action and positioning the cause of events in oneself seems to be rooted in
Christianity. In Western societies moral behaviour is still guided by the Christian tradition (Heine, 2011) and the idea that the individual is responsible for his actions and has control over his actions is dominant (Ratner, 2000; Heine, 2011). Moral behaviour is guided by Christian norms, and as the saying “Mea Culpa” suggests (i.e. through my fault), agency for one’s action is placed in oneself and the fault is attributed to the self. Since shame is a moral emotion, depending on the norms of the cultural context, self-attribution seems to be tied to Christian concepts. The crucial notion of mental self-punishment that can result in a decrease of one’s self-esteem seems to also be bound to Christian concepts. According to Freud, harm to the self results out of the internalization of the punishment of God (Freud, 1930). The punishing voice of God becomes one’s own voice punishing one’s wrongdoing, with the result of a decrease of self-worth (Ratner, 2000). The emotion shame seems to be tied to these religious concepts resulting in self-attribution and harm to self-worth.
The experience and expression of self-conscious emotions and the underlying concepts of agency and control are culturally dependent and highly diverse (Mesquita & Frijda, 1992; Kitayama et al., 1995; Heine, 2011). Therefore it is questionable whether these Western concepts of shame are comparable in a different Christian influenced country such as Ghana. Little emotional research has been conducted in Africa and it is unclear how the emotion shame is experienced and expressed. Ghana is an interesting field of research, because of its historical influence by the Western world, its majority Christian population on one hand and the indigenous belief systems on the other. In order to determine whether Ghanaians express shame comparable to Western-Christian concepts, this research focuses on the affective verbal communication of agency and self-worth.
Verbal affective communication refers to the way one verbally expresses and
evaluates an emotion (Scherer, 1997). Evaluation processes seem to be highly subjective and the difference between individuals is partly responsible for different experiences of an emotion (Scherer, 1997). Research suggests that emotions are partly shaped by individuals’ subjective evaluation of an event; referred to as ‘appraisals’ (Mesquita & Frijda 1992; Scherer, 1997). Studying verbal communication of appraisals in shame may reveal potential cultural differences in evaluation processes, which in turn might shape the experience of the emotion. In this research, the appraisal agency refers to the evaluation of responsibility or cause of the event (Scherer, 1997). The verbalization of agency either externally or internally could reveal implications about the beliefs of responsibility and causes of an event. Whether agency lies within oneself can be demonstrated in verbalizations such as “It was my fault” (i.e. agency-self) or “ By the grace of god” (i.e. agency-other). In this research self-worth is defined as an evaluation of oneself by either decreasing or increasing of self-esteem. Garnefski et al. (2001) indicates that different coping strategies are used by people when experiencing negative emotions. The appraisal coping refers to the ability to deal with an event and the consequences one is confronted with (Scherer, 1997). Coping strategies are divided into having either a relation to an increase of self-esteem or a relation to a decrease of self-esteem. Strategies related to an increase of self-esteem cover: 1. Acceptance (e.g. “ I will take it like that”), 2. Planning (e.g. “I am able to go through”), 3. Positive reappraisal (e.g. “ As a man I must have courage”), 4. Putting into perspective (e.g. “It’s part of life”). Coping strategies related to a decreasing of self-esteem and harm to one’s self-worth contain: 5. Self-blame (e.g. “ I wish I didn’t come to school at all”), 6. Rumination (e.g. “ It has tortured me”), 7. Catastrophizing (e.g. “I haven’t even tasted a spoon full of water”). Verbally expressing coping strategies related to self-esteem could give indications whether Ghanaians are in line with the crucial notion of harm to self-worth when experiencing shame.
Ghana – Fusion of Religions
In 1957, Ghana became the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from British colonization (Dzokota & Adams, 2007). The powerful impact of the European countries on the indigenous communities can be seen in the change of religion. The
Portuguese brought Christianity to Ghana and nowadays 71,2% of the population considers themself religious Christians1. Simultaneously the indigenous people of Ghana have their own belief system, which includes witches and voodoo spiritual beliefs. Within the traditional belief system, natural events tend to be interpreted and attributed to unseen forces (Levine, 1973). Through the fusion of European concepts of Christianity and the indigenous belief system a different form or religiousness arose that cannot be equated with Western-Christian thought. Duncan et al. (2007) argue that although people in different African countries consider themselves belonging to Christianity, the particular religion is not of importance but rather the religiosity itself. This also seems to be the case for Ghanaians since they are in “the natural sense of the word truly and deeply religious”2. One can wonder whether taking over the religion of the colonizing power went hand in hand with the acceptance of the implicit belief system and a corresponding expression of shame. Possibly the fusion with their
indigenous belief system determines that expression; regarding agency and coping strategies. Although the majority of Ghanaians consider themselves majorly as Christian, it is
questionable, if they express shame in a manner similar to Western-Christian concepts of shame.
Even though in Africa voodoo and witchcraft practices may not be maintained, the tendency to over attribute externally seems to be sustained (Scherer, 1997). Scherer’s research (1997) shows a tendency of different African countries (e.g. Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Malawi) to attribute the cause of an event externally regarding the emotion shame
1 http://www.ghanaembassy.org/index.php?page=population
compared to different countries around the world. Another factor, which strengthens the idea of external causation and responsibility in Ghana, is related to the perception of control. Studies in African countries (e.g. Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ethiopia) indicate weaker feelings of primary control; meaning that the existing reality is perceived as unchangeable by the
individual (Smith et al., 1995; Rossier, 2005). Rather, African participants attribute control externally and place agency outside of themselves. The studies on external attribution and primary control were not based in Ghana itself. But taken together the suggestions found in many African countries and the fusion of religions in Ghana, the tendency is expected. The first hypothesis states that Ghanaians have a tendency to verbalize agency outside of themselves when talking about the experienced emotion shame. This will be tested by comparing how frequent the speaker talks of himself as the agent in a shameful situation versus attributing agency to someone else such as a third person or God.
To test whether Ghanaians express harm to one’s self-worth comparable to Western-Christian concepts this research will secondly focus on the expression of coping strategies related to self-esteem when experiencing shame. Research suggests that Ghanaians might not have the tendency to experience and verbalize harm to one’s self-worth.
Levine’s theory (1973) argues that tormented self-harm is not a moral virtue in Africa and the core self won’t be seized and judged in regard to wrong behaviour. This indicates a less extreme form of experiencing shame when being accused of wrongdoing. Further
Anderson (2013) argues that while in Ghana the punishment of oneself for one’s wrong doing is done by the gods, one doesn’t engage in accusation resulting in decrease of one’s self-worth. This is further supported by research showing that Africans do not have the tendency to engage in mental rumination about wrongdoing (Levine, 1973), which is related to a decrease of self-esteem (Garnefsky et al., 2001). These theories lead to the suggestion that people in Ghana experience shame in a less harmful way to one’s self-worth as the earlier described version in Western concepts. The second hypothesis states that Ghanaians tend to
express less self-harm, which is operationalized in terms of verbalization of coping strategies. In order to test if shame is associated with harm to self-worth, like in other Christian
countries, the frequency of verbalizing coping strategies related to increasing of self-esteem versus decreasing of self-esteem will be counted.
Since research suggests a relation between agency and self-worth (Niedenthal et al., 2006), this relation may also be evident in Ghana. Internal attribution and responsibility seems to precondition decrease of self-esteem in negative life events (Heine, 2011). The third hypothesis states that agency serves as a predictor for the form of coping strategy that is verbalized. It is expected that Ghanaians who have a tendency to verbalize agency outside of them will express more self-esteem increasing related strategies. Consequently it is expected that Ghanaians that verbalize agency within them, will verbalize coping strategies related to a decrease of self-esteem. This will be tested by using the frequency of verbalization of agency as a predictor for the frequency of coping strategies verbalized.
Methods Participants
This research included 27 participants between the age of 22 and 59 (M= 39.5, SD=9.67). All participants were high-school teachers in Accra, Ghana. Among the participants were 7 female and 20 male participants. All participants in the study were videotaped while talking and filling in a questionnaire. Participants received 5€ for
participating in the study. The ethical commission of the University of Ghana approved the research.
Procedure
Participants were recruited with the help of students at the University of Ghana. First, participants were welcomed in a quiet, well-lighted room and took a seat on a chair in front of
a desk. They were requested to read the information brochure and to fill in the informed consent. Then the researchers gave a brief introduction to the goal of the research, without mentioning that the goal was to study emotional communication in order to not influence their natural communication and in order to avoid priming of an emotions. After a brief trial
session, the participants were left alone in front of the camera and followed the instruction given to them in the questionnaire. The participants read four different scenarios and imagined each scenario to happen to them, triggering four different emotions; joy, sadness, pride and shame. The order of the situation and corresponding emotion was counterbalanced after every participant. Since for the scope of that research only the emotion shame is
relevant, hereupon the focus lies on shame. The first section of the situation included the description of a scenario, instructions to imagine talking and explaining the scenario to an acquaintance (via video talk through the computer’s camera) for the 3 minutes that the hourglass was running. The scenario described a public shame event, in which the person indulges in a behavior disapproved and laughed upon by his colleagues (see Appendix A). After the scenario the participants filled out questions about the scenario in order to specify the emotion experienced and the intensity thereof on a rating scale ranging from 1=very weak to 10=very strong. When the scenarios were completed, the researcher returned and asked the participant to fill out questions about demographic information and several other
questionnaires irrelevant for the current research question. The video material of the described shame event was transcribed and then turned into a data file. Using the program Catma, the appraisals agency and coping strategies were highlighted in the text and then counted by their frequency.
Materials
This research included a questionnaire, which contained the description of the shame scenario (see Appendix A) and questions about the emotion experienced, English difficulties
and demographic information. The scenario chosen covered a public shame event, which seems to be culturally consistent triggering the emotion shame. Further a video camera in order to film and record the participants talking about the scenario. The transcription of the video material and the program Catma was used to analyze the verbatim based on a codebook (see Appendix B).
Measures & Design
The videotaped verbal description of the emotion shame served as data about verbal affective communication. This research is focused on two different components.
Agency: The first component, taken into account is agency based on the emotion-antecedent appraisal scheme form of Scherer (1997). Emotion-emotion-antecedent appraisals refer to the evaluation of significance of the event and agency refers to the attribution of the cause of an events. These were counted by their frequency divided on verbalization of agency-other (e.g. “By the grace of God”) opposed to agency-self (e.g. “It was my fault”) in the emotion shame. The frequency determined whether there is a difference between other versus self.
Coping strategies: The second component refers to the appraisal coping, which refers to the ability to deal with an event (Scherer, 1997). Different strategies are suggested by Garnefsky et al. (2001) to be in relation to self-esteem. The verbalization of emotion coping strategies were counted and divided on either related to an increase (Strategies 1,2,3,4) or a decrease (Strategies 5,6,7) of self-esteem to determine whether the verbalization differs on these strategies.
To determine the relation of the variables agency and coping strategies, agency-self and agency-other serve as the independent variables and coping strategies either related to an increase of self-esteem or a decrease of self-esteem served as the dependent variables.
Manipulation check on specific emotion: Participants were asked questions to specify the experienced emotion. These included questions such as “Did you experience any emotion
or feeling when you imagined the situation above? If so, please specify which emotion or feeling you experienced”, “ Did you experience any other emotion or feeling when you imagined the situation above? If so, please specify which emotion or feeling you
experienced”. The answered were categorized in target emotion (e.g. shame); congruent emotion (e.g. embarrassment) 3: incongruent emotion (e.g. confusion) and 4: ambivalent emotion (e.g. dissatisfied) and the frequency thereof serves as an indicator whether the emotion shame induced was actually experienced.
Language proficiency: Questions were included to determine whether the participants had difficulties talking about the events in English “Did you find it difficult to talk about the events in part 1 of this research?” (1=very much to 10=not at all) and whether the participants had difficulties following the instructions in English “Did you find it difficult to follow the instructions in this research in English?” (1=very much to 10=not at all).
Demographic information: Data on participants’ age, gender, education, profession, religion, relationship status, living status, family and language was collected. To check if earlier researches’ claim on extreme Christian religiosity in Ghana is really evident the percentage of indicated religiosity will be measured.
Results
This research included 27 participants of whom three participants were excluded because of missing data in the video materials or questionnaires. Due to this, 24 participants were included in the analysis. The results in this research are based on two different
components of appraisals, namely agency and coping strategies, and the relation between these two components. All tests, which are being discussed are evaluated on the basis of the significance level α = 0,05.
In all tests, assumptions of normality on the Shapiro-Wilk test such as the
small to indicate whether the assumption was in fact violated, no clear conclusions can be drawn and normality is treated as non-violated throughout the results.
Since we want to find out if Ghanaians express shame in line with Western-Christians concepts, first religiosity of the sample has to be verified. The result indicates that 92.6% of the participants consider themselves as Christians, which is in line with the expectations of high percentage of Christianity among the Ghanaian sample. Further, participants (n=24) referred to God on average 5.84 (SD=7.16) times while talking about their emotions.
In order to make sure participants could follow instruction and the procedure in
English, the mean indicated on the two questions regarding difficulty were measured. It seems that whether following the instructions M=8.73 (SD=2.03), nor talking in English M=8.85 (SD=1.84) was difficult for the participants.
To assure that the participants experienced shame and we successfully manipulated the subjective experience and expression of shame the frequency of indicated emotion on two different questions was measured. The indicated emotions were divided into four categories: Target emotion (e.g. shame, embarrassment); congruent emotion (e.g. sad, unhappy);
incongruent emotion (e.g. happy) and ambivalent (e.g. dissatisfied). The results are presented in the table bellow. On the basis of this frequency, one can conclude that more then 60 % of the participants experienced either the target emotion or an emotion related to the target emotion and therefore the manipulation seems successful, see Table 1.
Table 1
Emerged frequency scores on two questions regarding the emotion experienced divided into target emotion, congruent emotion, incongruent emotion and ambivalent emotion.
Category Target Congruent Incongruent Ambivalent
To get a general impression on the verbal affective expression of the emotion shame, average length of talking, average amount of words and average amount of affective
information was measured. Participants talked on average 168 seconds (SD=66.07) in the shame scenario and disclosed an average of 256.54 words (SD=97.54). Affective information units cover verbalization of specific emotion terms (e.g. ‘I am ashamed’), appraisals (e.g. ‘It was my fault’), valenced-only emotion (e.g. ‘I feel bad’) and emotion related actions (e.g. ‘ I wanted to run away’). On average 8.42 (SD=4.19) units were verbalized in the shame
scenario, taking up 3.78% of the total amount of information disclosed. Among these 8.42 affective information units, an average of 4.88 (SD=3.44) units covered appraisals and therefore take in more than 50% of affective information disclosed. Since this research focuses on appraisals, the different appraisals occurring are divided on their frequency; see Figure 1. 47% 9% 7% 2% 18% 9 % 8% 47% 9%
Figure 1. Frequency of appraisals occurring in the shame scenario covering pleasantness, goal conduciveness, agency-other, agency-self, expectation, coping, self-standards and external standards.
Since the scope of this research only coping and agency is relevant, only these will be further discussed. As Figure 1 illustrates, most appraisals occurring cover coping, namely 47%. Further, agency-other occurred 7% and agency-self appeared 9%. The first hypothesis states that Ghanaians tend to place agency more outside of them than inside of them. To test this, a paired t-test (one-sided) on agency-other and agency-self was conducted. The subjects did not significantly differ in how frequently they mentioned others as agent (M=.32, SD=.63) or themselves (M=.44, SD=.17) in the emotion shame t(24)= -.49, p=.622, d=24. Therefore the first hypothesis that Ghanaians will tend to verbalize agency outside more than inside is herewith rejected.
To determine the tendency of participants to mention certain coping strategies, the seven coping strategies were distinguished. The strategy most talked about by the participants was ‘Putting into Perspective’ (39%). In total, coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem (1,2,3,4) occurred 67%, whereas coping strategies related to a decrease of self-self-esteem (5,6,7) were found 33%. This is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Frequency of different coping strategies; Acceptance(1), Planning(2), Positive Reappraisal(3), Putting into perspective(4) (=related to increasing of self-esteem); Self-blame(5), Rumination(6), Catastrophizing(7) (=related to decreasing of self-esteem).
As Figure 2 illustrates participants used different coping strategies when talking about the emotion shame. To assess whether Ghanaians verbally express more coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem or a decrease of self-esteem, the average frequencies were compared and tested with a paired t-test (one-sided). Subjects significantly differ in how frequent coping strategies were mentioned related to an increasing of self-esteem (M=1.96, SD=1.87) opposed to strategies related to a decreasing of self-esteem (M=.92, SD=1.25) in the emotion shame t(23)=2.283, p=. 032, d=24. Therefore the second hypothesis, which states that Ghanaians tend to verbalize more coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem is herewith confirmed.
In order to determine whether agency can serve as a predictor for the form of coping strategies (third hypothesis), two multiple regression analysis were carried out.
39% 7% 11% 10% 11% 16% 6%
The first multiple regression checked whether agency-self can serve as a predictor for strategies related to a decrease of self-esteem strategies. An analysis of standard residuals was performed, which showed that the data contained no outliers, Std. Residuals Min=-.78, Std. Residual Max=2.35. Tests to see if the data met the assumption of collinearity indicated that multicollinearity was not a concern (Agency-other, Tolerance=.92, VIF=1.08; Agency-self, Tolerance=.92, VIF=1.08). Further the data met the assumption of independent errors, Durbin-Watson value= 1.93. The data also met the assumption of non-zero variances
(Agency-self=.757; Agency-other=.393; Coping strategy related to a decrease of self-esteem= 1.55). Since all the assumptions were met, the multiple regression analysis could be carried out.
The results on the first multiple regression indicate neither self nor agency-other significantly predict the value of coping strategies related to a decrease of self-esteem, F(2,21) = 0.03, p=.974 and accounts for only 0.2% of the variation. Herewith the hypothesis that agency-self could serve as a predictor for coping strategies related to a decrease of self-esteem is rejected. This is illustrated in Table 2.
Table 2
Predicting coping strategies related to a decrease of self-esteem
Predictor β t Sig. (ρ) Agency-other Agency-self .03 -.04 .12 -.16 .908 .878 *p ≤ .05
In order to check whether agency-other can serve as a predictor for coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem a multiple regression analysis was executed. An analysis of standard residuals was carried out, which showed that the data contained no outliers, Std. Residuals Min=-.91, Std. Residual Max=1.734. Tests to see if the data met the assumption of collinearity indicated that multicollinearity was not a concern (Agency-other, Tolerance=.92,
VIF=1.08; Agency-self, Tolerance=.92, VIF=1.08). Further the data met the assumption of independent errors, Durbin-Watson value= 2.14. The data also met the assumption of non-zero variances (Agency-self=.757; Agency-other=.393; Coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem = 3.52). Since all the assumptions were met, the multiple regression analysis could be carried out.
The results on the second multiple regression indicate that neither agency-other nor agency-self significantly predict the value of coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem, F(2,21) = 0.81, p=.459 and accounts for only 7,1% of the variation. Herewith the hypothesis that agency-other could serve as a predictor for coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem is rejected. This is illustrated in Table 3.
Table 3
Predicting coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem
Predictor β t Sig. (p) Agency-other Agency-self .26 -.02 1.19 -.08 .246 .932 *p ≤ .05
Conclusion & Discussion
Concepts of self-conscious emotions seem to be culturally dependant and most research on the experience and expression of shame, and the underlying implicit belief
system, is conducted in Western societies. Whether the same concepts internal attribution and the notion of decreasing of self-esteem, that seem to be determined by Christianity when experiencing shame, are evident in a different Christian country is investigated in this research. Verbal communication of shame in Ghana is examined, focusing on the appraisal agency, the appraisal coping and their relation.
The first goal of this research was to determine whether Ghanaians verbalize agency more frequently externally than internally. Unexpectedly, the results do not indicate this
tendency and contradict findings of earlier research.Research suggests that Africans have the tendency to place agency outside of them (Scherer, 1997) when experiencing shame. Further in different African countries control is mostly attributed externally (Smith et al., 1995; Rossier, 2005). It may be that the findings are not in line with earlier research, because Ghana is not comparable to other African countries regarding external attribution. Although Ghana went through a fusion of religions (i.e. Christianity and indigenous voodoo beliefs) it may be that the idea of internal agency within Christianity got internalized so deeply, that the
tendency from indigenous belief systems to attribute externally vanished.
It is possible that the verbal communication of agency may not be sufficiently precise in determining whether the participants have a tendency to place agency outside of
themselves or inside (Scherer,1998). The tendency of the participants in this research regarding agency was determined by counting the frequency participants verbalized agency-other or agency-self (which is below 0.5 times per scenario). The small amount of
verbalization of agency-other and agency-self may not be representative of the implicit idea Ghanaians have about responsibility and causation. Since agency itself was perhaps not validly measured via frequency of verbalization, specific questions about causation and responsibility of the event should be included in further research. Hereby a tendency of agency-other or agency-self in Ghana could be more sufficiently determined and whether it is more in line with Western-Christian concepts or African indigenous belief systems.
The second goal of this research was to determine whether Ghanaians verbalize more coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem as opposed to strategies related to a decrease of esteem. Research shows that harm to worth, by lowering one’s self-esteem is not a moral virtue in Ghana (Anderson, 2013). Research also suggests that Africans do not engage in mental rumination about wrongdoing (Levine, 1973). The results of this research are in line with Anderson (2013) and Levine (1973), since coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem were more mentioned then strategies related to a decrease of
self-esteem. Different factors could determine the tendency found in this research. Since more then 70% of the participants were male, mentioning coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem could be influenced by gender. ‘Putting into perspective’ was the strategy most applied by the participants when talking about the public-shame scenario. It may be that putting things in perspective is in accordance with the social expectations of males’ reactions to situations involving public shaming. It is possible that participants talk in a way that is in line with the cultural norm for men talking about the emotion shame. Research showed a tendency to a positive outlook on negative emotions among Ghanaians (Eshun, 1999). This may be reinforced by the fact that they were videotaped and knew that others will watch the tape. Therefore the tendency to verbalize coping strategies related to an increase of self-esteem may be due to a cultural norm, according to which males are expected to talk in a particular way about shame. In further research the gender distribution of the sample should be equal, to determine whether males or females have a tendency to use certain coping strategies. Also, social desirability should be investigated.
Whether the coping strategies verbalized, actually reflect an increase or a decrease of self-esteem is questionable. The relation between self-esteem and the different strategies is based on research by Garnevsky et al. 2001. This research was conducted in the Netherlands and the indicated relation between certain coping strategies and self-esteem is possibly culturally biased. Whether verbalizing certain coping strategies is affecting the self-esteem of Ghanaians similar to Dutch people is uncertain. In many collectivistic societies enhancement of self-esteem is not sought out (Heine, 2011). Since Ghana is a collectivistic country,
possibly this fact may account as well. If this is the case, it could be that the coping strategies verbalized by the participants have a different relation to self-esteem. Hence self-esteem was possibly not validly measured, and the conclusion whether Ghanaians’ self-esteem is
increasing or decreasing when verbalizing certain coping strategies is hard to trace. A
research to determine whether coping strategies relate to an increase or a decrease of self-esteem. Supplementary questions measuring a cultural tendency to seek out self-esteem should be included to determine whether Ghanaians are motivated to enhance or lower their self-esteem.
The third goal of this research was to determine whether agency serves as a predictor for the kind of coping strategies verbalized. Earlier research suggests that seeing oneself as responsible for a negative event can result in a decrease of self-esteem contrary to external attribution (Niedenthal et al., 2006; Garnefski et al., 2001; Heine, 2012). This was not
indicated in the results since agency-self and agency-other did not serve as a predictor for the different coping strategies. It is possible that the relation between agency and self-esteem is culturally dependant. Most research suggesting this type of relation is conducted in Western societies. Ghana is considered a highly collectivistic country (Kim-Prieto & Eid, 2004) and one’s self-worth is generally dependent on the evaluation from the group (Eid & Diener, 2001). It could be that the concept of agency Ghanaians inherit is not related to self-esteem. As mentioned above verbalization of certain coping strategies may not be representative for an effect on self-esteem. Therefore the relation of agency and self-esteem is hard to determine within the given results. In case the variables would be more validly operationalized, a clearer picture of whether agency is in relation to self-esteem in Ghana could be drawn. Or if other factors such as group evaluation may serve as a better predictor.
Despite the fact that this research shows certain shortcomings, the tendency to verbalize particular coping strategies was evident in the Ghanaian sample. Whether this tendency also reflects that self-esteem is not decreasing and harm to self-worth doesn’t take place, when experiencing shame, is unclear. Whether Ghanaians have a tendency to attribute agency externally or internally cannot be confirmed, which may be due to shortcomings in the measurements. The relation between agency and coping strategies related to self-esteem is also uncertain. Christianity seems to have its share of notions relating to agency and
self-esteem in Western-Christian societies. It is still unclear if this can also account in a different society, also influenced by Christianity. Since a fusion of religions took place in Ghana it is still questionable what role Christianity and the indigenous belief systems play in the
experience and expression of shame. Further research is needed to determine whether shame in the Ghanaian context is comparable to Christian-Western concepts based on the crucial notions of agency and self-esteem. This could challenge the given ideas about shame in the emotion field research.
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Appendix A Shame scenario
You are attending a teachers meeting hosted by the principal and an important government member visiting your school. The government official asks a question and you answer the question with enthusiasm. It turns out to be the wrong answer and the official quickly turns away from you. Your colleagues start giggling.
Appendix B
Codebook for the analysis of verbal affective communication
Variable Description Instruction Name in SPSS
Amount of general information disclosed
How much general information (emotional & non-emotional information together) does person share?
Count number of words (per scenario and across all scenarios)
DISC_TOT (sum of all 4 scenarios)
DISC_JY (# words joy scenario) DISC_PD (# words pride scenario)
DISC_SD (# words sadness scenario)
DISC_SH (# words shame scenario)
Length How long (in seconds)
does subject talk?
1st word until last LENGTH_TOT (sum of seconds
spoken in all 4 scenarios) LENGTH_JY/SD/PD/SH
Speech Rate* How fast/slow does subject
talk? How many words does subject disclose per minute?
Divide number of words by length (per scenario and across all scenarios)
RATE_TOT
RATE_JY/SD/PD/SH
Organization At which point in time
does the subject reveal the first affective information?
Note down second at which 1st verbal affective information unit is mentioned ORG_TOT ORG_JY/SD/PD/SH Amount of affective information disclosed
How much affective information does subject reveal?
Count number of verbal affective information units (eg specific emotion terms, valenced-only terms, appraisals, emotion-related actions)
VBINFOA_TOT (sum of verbal affective information units) VBINFOA_JY/SD/PD/SH (per scenario) Relative amount of affective information disclosed*
How much affective information does subject reveal controlling for the amount of time (s)he talks?
Divide number of verbal affective information units by number of words • Eg VBINFOA_TO T : DISC_TOT • Eg. VBINFOA_PD : DISC_PD REL_VBINFOA_TOT REL_VBINFOA_JY/SD/PD/SH Amount of specific emotion terms disclosed
How many specific emotion words does subject mention?
• Definition: Words directly referring to affective states (note: can be different types of words
• Eg. Sadly, the
government has decided to abandon financing • I am happy/sad, worried/confident , angry/pleased, keen/uninterested Count number of specific emotion terms (per scenario and across all scenarios)
SPECEMO_TOT
• His fear was obvious to all • I was overcome with joy Relative amount of specific emotion terms disclosed*
How many specific emotion words does subject mention controlling for the amount of time (s)he talks?
Count number of specific emotion terms (per scenario and across all scenarios) and divide by number of words SPECEMO_TOT SPECEMO_JY/SD/PD/SH Amount of valenced-only emotion terms disclosed
How many valenced-only emotion words does subject mention?
• Words directly referring to affective state but only in terms of valence
• eg. I feel good, I
feel down
Count number of valenced-only emotion words (per scenario and across all scenarios)
VAGEMO_TOT VAGEMO_JY/SD/PD/SH Relative amount of valenced-only emotion terms disclosed* Amount of appraisals
How many appraisals does subject use? • Definition: Evaluation of significance of event (and attribution of the cause of those events) • Appraisals occur after the event, before the experience of an emotion or emac. • Eg. something great just happened, bad news, it was expected
• Please mark with CATMA which type of appraisal was made (more details bellow) Count number of appraisals APP_TOT APP_JY/SD/PD/SH Relative amount of appraisals* REL_APP_TOT REL_APP_JY/SD/PD/SH Amount of emotion-related actions
How many emotion-related actions does subject use?
• Definition: Actions and emotional responses indirectly referring to affective states, Count number of emotion-related actions EMAC_TOT EMAC_JY/SD/PD/SH
eg physiological reaction, motor expression, action tendencies • EMACS occur as a consequence (after) of an experienced emotion • Eg. I am blushing, I wanted to punch someone, I wanted to run away Relative amount of emotion-related actions * REL_EMAC_TOT REL_EMAC_JY/SD/PD/SH Owner of emotion (self)
How often does subject speak of himself as the owner of the emotion? • eg. I feel great,
something horrible happened to me, I wanted to run away OSELF_TOT Owner of the emotion (3rd person)
How often does subject speak of others as the owner of the emotion?
• eg. one surely
feels great in such a situation
• Note: only count when emotion is a result of event (receiving a praise; being shamed publicly) so the fact that your boss is happy with your work does not count!
OTHRD_TOT
Owner of emotion (group)
How often does subject speak of a group including him/herself as the owner of the emotion? • Eg we were delighted by the news OGROUP_TOT General attempt to involve interaction partner
How often does the subject make an attempt to reach out, get a response from the imagined receiver of the message?
• Eg. Do you have
any children yourself?
Attempt to emotionally involve interaction partner
How often does the subject make an attempt to emotionally reach out, get an emotional response from the imagined receiver of the message?
• Eg. wouldn’t you
feel the same?
• Eg. how would
you feel?
INVOLVE_EMO
• * Variable has to be transformed IN SPSS, calculated based on existing variables
• Forms of appraisals (based on Scherer, 1997) to be tagged in CATMA o 1. Novelty/Expectation:
Did you expect this situation to occur?
• E.g. Something weird just happened; I did not see that coming o 2. Intrinsic Pleasantness:
Did you find the event itself pleasant or unpleasant? • E.g. Something horrible happened; I had a great day o 3. Goal-conduciveness/significance:
How important was the event for your goals, needs, or desires at the time it happened? Did it help or hinder you to follow your plans or achieve your aims?
• E.g. Maybe I will get a raise now o 4. Agency
Who do you think was responsible for the event in the first place ? (self, close persons, other persons, impersonal agency).
• E.g. It wasn’t my fault; I should have never said anything o 5.Coping potential & Control/Power/Adjustment:
How did you evaluate your ability to act on or to cope with the event and its consequences you were confronted with this situation? (eg. having or needing less power to deal with an event to being able to positively influence an event, powerless, escape possible, pretend nothing happened, no action necessary, could positively influence event and change consequences. )
• E.g. I did not know what to do; This will never happen again; I don’t really care
o 6. Compatibility with internal standard (Self-ideal)
How did this event affect your feelings about yourself, such as your self-esteem or your self-confidence?
• E.g. it made me look like a fool; I came across so dumb o 7. Compatibility with external standards (Norms & Fairness)
If the event was caused by your own or someone else’ behaviour, would this behavior itself be judged as improper or immoral by your acquaintances?
Would you say that the situation or event that caused your emotion was unjust or unfair ?
• E.g. it wasn’t fair; Who does something like that?; I find it rather odd
• Some general coding tips & rules
o If subject repeats phrases literally from the scenario (eg “I can hardly wait to see the baby”), they are not coded and do not count.
o If the subject expresses two verbal affective information units together (“I was very excited AND wanted to run to their house as fast as I could”), you count them double (in this case: 1 x specific emotion term, 1 x emotion-related action)
o If subject repeats an affective information unit (“I was so excited, really excited”), they count double.
