Perception of shame and assessment of its sources by healthy populations and patients suffering from embarrassing illnesses Cover Image

Rozumienie wstydu oraz ocena jego źródeł przez osoby zdrowe i pacjentów z wstydliwymi chorobami
Perception of shame and assessment of its sources by healthy populations and patients suffering from embarrassing illnesses

Author(s): Teresa Rzepa, Ryszard Żaba, Oliwia Jakubowicz
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: embarrassing illnesses; shame; syphilis; acne; psoriasis

Summary/Abstract: The study aims at investigating the following: 1) contemporaryperception of shame; 2) social situations that are perceived asexternal sources of shame; 3) individual actions that are perceivedas internal sources of shame. It was assumed that the differentiationvariable would be the absence or presence of chronic embarrassingconditions in the studied population. The study was conductedbetween October 2012 and March 2013 in three subgroups of patientstreated at the Department of Dermatology and Venereology,Poznan University of Medical Sciences. In total, 111 patients wereincluded into the study group (43 acne, 43 psoriasis and 25 syphiliscases), while 103 students and/or employees of Poznań collegescomprised the control group. The respondents filled in an originalquestionnaire, designed especially for the purpose of the study,consisting of 9 and 8 half-open tasks for the study group and thecontrol group, respectively. The questionnaires were designed onthe basis of medical and psychotherapeutic experiences of the investigatingteam. The χ2 test and U Mann-Whitney test were usedfor statistical analysis with p < 0.05 as statistically significant.

  • Issue Year: 6/2013
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 51-61
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish