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Interpersonal guilt: The development of a new measure
Author(s) -
O'Connor Lynn E.,
Berry Jack W.,
Weiss Joseph,
Bush Marshall,
Sampson Harold
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4679(199701)53:1<73::aid-jclp10>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - psychology , shame , psychopathology , interpersonal communication , internal consistency , clinical psychology , relevance (law) , psychometrics , social psychology , psychotherapist , political science , law
We describe the development if a new measure to assess guilt related to concern about harming others. The two versions of the Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire, a 45‐item and 67‐item version, include theoretically‐based and clinically relevant categories of guilt: survivor guilt, separation/disloyalty guilt, omnipotent responsibility guilt, and self‐hate guilt. Preliminary reliability and validity studies for both versions are presented, based on clinical and non clinical samples of subjects. Subscales on both versions show good internal consistency; however, the second version which expanded on the first, is more psychometrically sound overall. Both versions demonstrated predicted correlations with previously published measures of guilt and related affects, such as shame depression, and with attributional style. Differences between clinical and nonclinical samples are reported and the relevance of survivor guilt and shame to psychopathology is noted. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.