<p>Positive and negative self-criticism plays out in many different ways and can depend on the person's mental health or state. It can induce guilt, shame, and sometimes embarrassment. A <a href="https://scholar.google.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google Scholar</a> search for <em>self-criticism</em> came up with a great deal of research, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12186" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Petrocchi, et al. (2019)</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Results support the growing evidence that not all positive self‐relating processes exert the same protective function against psychopathological consequences of self‐criticism. Implications for psychotherapy and the validity of using compassion‐focused interventions with clients with self‐critical issues are discussed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.537" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mills, et al. (2007)</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Paranoid beliefs are associated with negative and malevolent views of others. This study, however, explored hostile and compassionate self‐to‐self relating in regard to paranoid beliefs</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.024" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Whelton, et al. (2005)</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>When Self-Critics and Controls were induced into a dysphoric mood and asked to criticize themselves and to respond to the criticism, the Self-Critics were judged to be more contemptuous and less self-resilient than the Controls. The Self-Critics and Controls both expressed self-critical thoughts, but the Self-Critics expressed them with greater contempt. The Self-Critics were also found to be less self-resilient to the criticism than the Controls.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>References</h2>
<p>Mills, A., Gilbert, P., Bellew, R., McEwan, K., &amp; Gale, C. (2007). Paranoid beliefs and self‐criticism in students. <em>Clinical Psychology &amp; Psychotherapy, 14</em>(5), 358-364. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.537" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.537</a></p>
<p>Petrocchi, N., Dentale, F., &amp; Gilbert, P. (2019). Self‐reassurance, not self‐esteem, serves as a buffer between self‐criticism and depressive symptoms. <em>Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 92</em>(3), 394-406. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12186" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12186</a></p>
<p>Whelton, W. J., &amp; Greenberg, L. S. (2005). Emotion in self-criticism. <em>Personality and individual differences, 38</em>(7), 1583-1595. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.024" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.024</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-13T06:55:43.143Z
2022-11-13T06:55:43.143Z
Chris Rogers
<p>Yes, this is called neuroticism.</p>
<p>Embarrassment as a personality trait can be measured using the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2786616" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Embarrassability Scale (ES)</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10615809708249306" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Susceptibility to Embarrassment Scale (SES)</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.01.001" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Acceptance of Shame and Embarrassment Scale (ASES)</a>, among others.  A comprehensive list of scales used to measure embarrassment, guilt, and shame as traits can be found in <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-14002-024" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Robins, Noftle, &amp; Tracy (2007)</a>.</p>
<p>However, it turns out that many emotion traits, including embarrassment, guilt, and shame, correlate with each other in a manner that shares an underlying factor.  Thus, personality inventories typically do not need to measure embarrassment specifically, as individuals high in embarrassability tend to score high in other personality sub-facets that share this factor.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_psychology" rel="nofollow noreferrer">personality psychology</a>, anxiety, embarrassment, guilt, and shame, fall under the trait of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroticism" rel="nofollow noreferrer">neuroticism</a> - one of the Big 5 traits:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For example, in the Big Five approach to personality trait theory,
individuals with high scores for neuroticism are more likely than
average to be moody and to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry,
fear, anger, frustration, envy, jealousy, guilt, depressed mood, and
loneliness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Embarrassment belongs under the neuroticism <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facet_(psychology)#NEO_PI-R" rel="nofollow noreferrer">sub-facet</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-consciousness#Psychology" rel="nofollow noreferrer">self-consciousness</a> (as mentioned in another answer), and in fact, embarrassment scales are often validated against self-consciousness.</p>
<p>These emotions are also more broadly included in the trait of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_affectivity" rel="nofollow noreferrer">negative affectivity</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Negative affectivity subsumes a variety of negative emotions,
including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness.
... Trait negative affectivity roughly corresponds to the dominant
personality factor of anxiety/neuroticism that is found within the Big
Five personality traits as emotional stability.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Also worth mentioning, the tendency to obsess over past experiences and stress is called &quot;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumination_(psychology)#Types_and_content_of_thoughts" rel="nofollow noreferrer">rumination</a>&quot;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>State rumination, which involves dwelling on the consequences and
feelings associated with the failure. State rumination is more common
in people who are pessimistic, neurotic, and who have negative
attributional styles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rumination can also be measured as a personality trait using a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumination_(psychology)#Measurement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">variety of scales</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-30T20:13:44.497Z
2023-01-10T20:56:56.267Z
2023-01-10T20:56:56.267Z
Arnon Weinberg
<p>Shame, guilt and embarrassment, and other emotions closely linked to self-evaluation come under the general category of <strong>self-conscious emotions</strong>. Some people are indeed more predisposed to self-conscious emotions than others, see the SCAII[1]. This can be associated with many personality and/or developmental factors, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li>Self esteem (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8768475/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8768475/</a>)</li>
<li>Self-awareness (as in self/personality development), emotional development (<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-04021-026" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-04021-026</a>)</li>
<li>Moral development (<a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.665" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.665</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p>[1] Tangney, J. P. (1990). Assessing individual differences in proneness to shame and guilt: Development of the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(1), 102–111.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-15T21:24:44.060Z
2022-11-15T21:24:44.060Z
inu
<p>Is there a personality subtype where it’s really common to feel embarrassed about one's past self, like cringing about something you said, wrote, or did some time ago?  It may change over time, but I think some people just naturally have this inclination, like a propensity towards social anxiety.</p>
<p>Is this a known phenomenon?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-12T21:46:20.433Z
Your described extreme form of embarassment as social anxiety as yourself pointed out is related to ability of exceptional selected episodic memory about specifics such that the subject is unable to forget some unpleasant moment in life which most people just let go. Such subjects may constantly and obsessively rehearsal and retrieve episodic memories in their prefrontal cortex.
cinch
<social-psychology><emotion><personality><anxiety>
Have psychologists recognized how some people feel more embarrassment?
Julius Hamilton
# Have psychologists recognized how some people feel more embarrassment?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-11-12)

Is there a personality subtype where it’s really common to feel embarrassed about one's past self, like cringing about something you said, wrote, or did some time ago? It may change over time, but I think some people just naturally have this inclination, like a propensity towards social anxiety.

Is this a known phenomenon?

**Tags:** social-psychology, emotion, personality, anxiety

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Your described extreme form of embarassment as social anxiety as yourself pointed out is related to ability of exceptional selected episodic memory about specifics such that the subject is unable to forget some unpleasant moment in life which most people just let go. Such subjects may constantly and obsessively rehearsal and retrieve episodic memories in their prefrontal cortex.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-11-13. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Positive and negative self-criticism plays out in many different ways and can depend on the person's mental health or state. It can induce guilt, shame, and sometimes embarrassment. A [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/) search for *self-criticism* came up with a great deal of research, including [Petrocchi, et al. (2019)](https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12186),

> Results support the growing evidence that not all positive self‐relating processes exert the same protective function against psychopathological consequences of self‐criticism. Implications for psychotherapy and the validity of using compassion‐focused interventions with clients with self‐critical issues are discussed.

[Mills, et al. (2007)](https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.537),

> Paranoid beliefs are associated with negative and malevolent views of others. This study, however, explored hostile and compassionate self‐to‐self relating in regard to paranoid beliefs

and [Whelton, et al. (2005)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.024)

> When Self-Critics and Controls were induced into a dysphoric mood and asked to criticize themselves and to respond to the criticism, the Self-Critics were judged to be more contemptuous and less self-resilient than the Controls. The Self-Critics and Controls both expressed self-critical thoughts, but the Self-Critics expressed them with greater contempt. The Self-Critics were also found to be less self-resilient to the criticism than the Controls.

## References

Mills, A., Gilbert, P., Bellew, R., McEwan, K., & Gale, C. (2007). Paranoid beliefs and self‐criticism in students. *Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 14*(5), 358-364. <https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.537>

Petrocchi, N., Dentale, F., & Gilbert, P. (2019). Self‐reassurance, not self‐esteem, serves as a buffer between self‐criticism and depressive symptoms. *Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 92*(3), 394-406. <https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12186>

Whelton, W. J., & Greenberg, L. S. (2005). Emotion in self-criticism. *Personality and individual differences, 38*(7), 1583-1595. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.024>


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2022-11-30. Score: 1

Yes, this is called neuroticism.

Embarrassment as a personality trait can be measured using the [Embarrassability Scale (ES)](https://doi.org/10.2307/2786616), [Susceptibility to Embarrassment Scale (SES)](https://doi.org/10.1080/10615809708249306), [Acceptance of Shame and Embarrassment Scale (ASES)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.01.001), among others. A comprehensive list of scales used to measure embarrassment, guilt, and shame as traits can be found in [Robins, Noftle, & Tracy (2007)](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-14002-024).

However, it turns out that many emotion traits, including embarrassment, guilt, and shame, correlate with each other in a manner that shares an underlying factor. Thus, personality inventories typically do not need to measure embarrassment specifically, as individuals high in embarrassability tend to score high in other personality sub-facets that share this factor.

In [personality psychology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_psychology), anxiety, embarrassment, guilt, and shame, fall under the trait of [neuroticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroticism) - one of the Big 5 traits:

> For example, in the Big Five approach to personality trait theory,
> individuals with high scores for neuroticism are more likely than
> average to be moody and to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry,
> fear, anger, frustration, envy, jealousy, guilt, depressed mood, and
> loneliness.

Embarrassment belongs under the neuroticism [sub-facet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facet_(psychology)#NEO_PI-R) of [self-consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-consciousness#Psychology) (as mentioned in another answer), and in fact, embarrassment scales are often validated against self-consciousness.

These emotions are also more broadly included in the trait of [negative affectivity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_affectivity):

> Negative affectivity subsumes a variety of negative emotions,
> including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness.
> ... Trait negative affectivity roughly corresponds to the dominant
> personality factor of anxiety/neuroticism that is found within the Big
> Five personality traits as emotional stability.

Also worth mentioning, the tendency to obsess over past experiences and stress is called "[rumination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumination_(psychology)#Types_and_content_of_thoughts)":

> State rumination, which involves dwelling on the consequences and
> feelings associated with the failure. State rumination is more common
> in people who are pessimistic, neurotic, and who have negative
> attributional styles.

Rumination can also be measured as a personality trait using a [variety of scales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumination_(psychology)#Measurement).


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2022-11-15. Score: 1

Shame, guilt and embarrassment, and other emotions closely linked to self-evaluation come under the general category of **self-conscious emotions**. Some people are indeed more predisposed to self-conscious emotions than others, see the SCAII[1]. This can be associated with many personality and/or developmental factors, for example:

* Self esteem (<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8768475/>)
* Self-awareness (as in self/personality development), emotional development (<https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-04021-026>)
* Moral development (<https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.665>)

[1] Tangney, J. P. (1990). Assessing individual differences in proneness to shame and guilt: Development of the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(1), 102–111.


---

