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How to Silence One’s Conscience: Cognitive Defenses Against the Feeling of Guilt
Author(s) -
Miceli Maria,
Castelfranchi Cristiano
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal for the theory of social behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.615
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5914
pISSN - 0021-8308
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5914.00076
Subject(s) - feeling , psychology , cognitive appraisal , cognition , silence , conscience , perception , social psychology , appraisal theory , cognitive psychology , epistemology , aesthetics , philosophy , neuroscience
This work presents an analysis of the feeling of guilt and in particular of the cognitive defenses against it. It shows how the need to avoid or mitigate the feeling, with the suffering implied, affects the perception and judgment of oneself and others. It is in fact claimed that to copy with their guilt people try to alter the appraisal processes implied by the emotion. Once described the main cognitive components of the feeling of guilt, an analysis is offered of the interventions of the cognitive defenses on such components, to alter the original appraisal processes underlying the feeling.