SHAME AND GUILT AMONG FIRST-GENERATION AND SECOND-GENERATION ASIAN-AMERICANS AND EUROPEAN AMERICANS

Shame and guilt narratives of first- and second-generation Asian Ameri cans and multigeneration European Americans were collected in semistru ctured interviews to learn how respondents perceive the phenomenology, function, and interpersonal dynamics of these emotions, This article focuses on the formal characteristics of shame episodes reported by me mbers of these groups and offers an interpretive explanation for diffe rences that involve respondents' conceptions of the self and related c ultural practices. The analysis proposes that shame is at times embedd ed in a triadic structure for first-generation Asian Americans compris ed of the actor, a shamed other, and an audience. European American sh ame experiences, however, typically conform to a dyadic structure of a ctor and audience. Shame stories of second-generation Asian Americans contain elements of both emotion ecologies that may reflect a unique, bicultural adaptation. These findings are consistent with a cultural c onstructionist view of the emotions.