Affective predictors of dissociation. II: Shame and guilt.

As a contribution to an understanding of the psychodynamics of dissociative disorders this study investigated proneness to shame and to guilt as predictors of dissociative tendencies. One hundred and three Australian university students completed self-report measures of dissociative tendencies, proneness to shame and to guilt, gender, and age. Proneness to shame, proneness to guilt, and age were found to contribute significantly to the prediction of dissociative tendencies. The data provide further support for the view that common affective consequences of childhood trauma may mediate between such trauma and the development of a dissociative coping style.