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Shame and Support:How People Experience and Cope With Shame
Örebro University, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work.
Örebro University, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work.
2020 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
Skam och stöd:Hur människor upplever och hanterar skam (Swedish)
Abstract [en]

The purpose of this study was to investigate what kind of support people perceive helpful in coping with shame. Do people experience shame as a taboo topic, and how do different genders experience shame? The study had a qualitative approach and was based on an online-survey with mostly open-ended questions. The sample consisted of 33 participants, 17 men and 16 women, gathered through convenience sampling. The study had a deductive approach based on “shame resilience theory” as formulated by Brené Brown (Brown, 2006). The results showed that the coping mechanisms in connection with shame were ambiguous. The majority of the participants that had chosen to share their experience of shame felt relief afterwards and had received support. Both men and women stated that shame made them feel physically uncomfortable and reported similar negative psychological symptoms, but they generally differed in why they felt shame. Our initial hypothesis was that people would have talked about their experiences around shame in a very limited way because of a possible taboo on shame and the physical and psychological discomfort connected with shame. The conclusion we made is that the majority of participants in this study had shared their experiences with significant others and the kind of support they perceived as helpful in coping with shame was being listened to with empathy by people who they trusted and with whom they felt safe.

Abstract [sv]

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilken typ av stöd människor uppfattar som hjälpsamt i hanteringen av skam. Upplever människor skam som ett tabubelagt ämne och hur upplever olika kön skam? Studien hade en kvalitativ ansats och utgjordes av en online-studie med mestadels öppna frågor. Urvalet bestod av 33 deltagare, 17 män och 16 kvinnor som deltog i studien utifrån ett bekvämlighetsurval. Studien hade ett deduktivt tillvägagångssätt och grundade sig i “shame resilience theory” såsom den formulerats av Brené Brown (Brown, 2006). Resultaten visade att mekanismerna för att hantera skam var motsägelsefulla. Majoriteten av deltagarna som hade valt att dela sina upplevelser kände lättnad efteråt och hade fått stöd. Både män och kvinnor berättade att skam fick dem att känna fysiska obehag och rapporterade liknande negativa psykologiska symptom, men de skiljde sig generellt åt i varför de kände skam. Vår ursprungliga hypotes var att människor hade pratat om sina upplevelser av skam på ett väldigt begränsat sätt på grund av ett möjligt tabu kring skam och det fysiska och psykologiska obehaget kopplat till skam. Vår slutsats är att majoriteten av deltagarna i studien hade berättat om sina upplevelser med närstående och den typ av stöd som de upplevde var hjälpsamt i hanteringen av skam var att bli lyssnade till med empati, av människor som de litade på och som de kände sig trygga med.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. , p. 40
Keywords [en]
Shame, support, coping, shame resilience theory
Keywords [sv]
skam, stöd, coping, shame resilience theory
National Category
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-88848OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-88848DiVA, id: diva2:1521490
Subject / course
Psykologi
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2021-01-22 Created: 2021-01-23 Last updated: 2021-01-26Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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