Ｑ48.What is shame?

Ａ.Shame is a response in which one is angry with oneself.<br>
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　　Shame is an emotion which branches out from anger depending on the situation.<br>
　　Anger occurs when actions or thoughts are interrupted, and anger calls for action to break it. However, anger sometimes breaks common rules, so shame is an emotion to prevent it. Shame is also called embarrassment, disgrace, humiliation. or things one's pride will not allow.<br>
　　When people feel shame they blush. This is because they are fighting to suppress anger. There is a conflict between one's anger and intellect.<br>
　　The person is silent, does things such as looking down, trying not to stand out, and trying to hide. Sometimes the person will also hide their face. They are upset, and consciousness is confused. A person may become angry and act violently out of shame. There are some people who become angry and say something like, "I've never been so humiliated!" This is because shame is an emotion that branches out from anger.<br>
　　Shame is very unpleasant, so people avoid shameful situations. We will correct our behavior to take a more suitable action.<br>
　　Shame occurs in several situations.<br>
　　You may feel embarrassed if someone opens the door when you are in the bathroom because you forgot to lock the door. We feel embarrassed if someone sees us using the toilet or preforming sexual acts.<br>
　　 However, one doesn't feel much embarrassment when one's lover sees a defenseless state such as in the example, because love dispels embarrassment. Otherwise human beings would become extinct.<br>
　　We also feel embarrassed when we perform on the stage, when many people are watch us, when we are late for school because we overslept, when we are found nodding off in a class or a meeting, when we lose against an opponent we should have been able to easily beat, or when someone sees a test we failed, and so on. However, we don't regard the poor result on the test as shame if we did our best.<br>
　　Common points are that we don't want these occurrence to happen, others to notice our weak points, or someone to see us looking awkward, and so on. Shame or embarrassment requires others. We don't feel embarrassed if there is a tree frog in the bathroom when we use it.<br>
　　In conclusion, it is thought that shame will occur in situation in which you are cautioned or something you did is pointed out by others. In other words, embarrassment occurs when you have done something that you could be scolded for.<br>
　　It is thought that we feel embarrassed when many people are watching us because there are too many people who can point out our mistakes, and this is similar to when being scolded. If we are completely confident, we don't feel embarrassed, at most we will feel a little bashful.<br>
　　People may judge that shame or embarrassment occurs when mistakes are pointed out, so if there are no mistakes one doesn't feel it. However, emotions occur even when the situation is a little different from the standard situation that causes the emotion. An emotion is only the judgment in a certain moment and situation, it doesn't include the context. Therefore, we may feel shame in a situation that others think is not shameful.<br>
　　The signals which make us feel shame are another's steady gaze or a voice with anger in it. So if you feel shame very strongly, and you are too conscious of others watching and their responses, then shame is interfering with your life. Shame includes a lot of acquired elements, and early childhood education can enlarge a person's sense of shame, but behavioral therapy can correct this.<br>
　　The opposite occurs as well. If a person is spoiled by growing up in an environment in which all the person's anger is accepted, that person will grow up to be a shameless person.<br>
　　Shame means that people are cautious to act because they worry about reproaches from others. If someone didn't develop shame in the process of growing, that person may become a person that is confident but arrogant, a busybody that loves rumors and gossip about other people, and insensitive. We cannot make people like this mend their attitude because they don't mind being reproached.<br>
　　Shame varies significantly depending on the culture. Some people say Westerners and Japanese hide different body parts in the bath. In general, Japanese have a large range of shame, so it has been called a shame culture. Since a large portion of shame is made by discipline, the difference among cultures and individuals is wide, and it is easy to change.<br>
　　Shame decreases with age because situations in which a person is reprimanded decreases with age.<br>
　　Parents feel embarrassed when their child fails because they are the one being scolded.<br>
　　Shame is an emotion which branches out from anger. If a child does something wrong, a parent or a teacher scolds that child. At that time the child's reaction is anger, but children cannot resist and win against their parents, so children accept this as discipline and start to recognize it as shame. After this, actions which caused shame are always accompanied with a sense of shame.<br>
　　Humans are the only animals that point out other's mistakes. Culture requires shame. Only human beings seem to feel shame, but some pets may feel it because they live in human culture. Besides, they are sometimes even educated.<br>
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