Anna Izabela Brzezińska

Shame and emotional regulation in the process of identity formation
In the paper we present a draft of a model capturing the relationship between shame and the identity development process. We discuss two main concepts of shame: shame as an adaptive emotion, according to the evolutionary approach, and as a maladaptive emotion, according to the cognitive attribution theory. Our main thesis states that shame has an essential, both constructive and maladaptive importance for identity development, and this effect is indirect, through the mechanisms of regulating emotions. The destructive and disrupting value of shame is not an immanent feature of this emotion, but a consequence of malfunctioning mechanisms of shame regulation. The association of shame with identity formation relates to the dimensions of exploration: in breadth, in depth and ruminative, as well as to commitment making and identification with commitment. People with a high level of shame proneness are more sensitive to information and assessment coming from signifi cant others from their nearest social environment and more self-critical. This may contribute to the increasing discrepancy or dissonance between the possessed and the desired or socially expected identity. This may also activate mechanisms of identity change and affect its relative stability.

The present article describes the process of revision of the Polish adaptation of the popular identity measure – The Dimensions of Identity Development Scale. The article presents theoretical assumptions of the scale, reasons for undertaking the process of revision of the Polish adaptation of the DIDS, and the results of three studies in which the revised questionnaire was used. The obtained results suggest that in its current version the Polish adaptation of the DIDS is a reliable and factorially valid measure. The associations of the five identity processes measured by the DIDS (exploration in breadth, commitment making, exploration in depth, identification with commitment, ruminative exploration) with rumination, reflection, worry, shame, guilt, indecisiveness, and educational identity dimensions support the validity of the Polish adaptation of the measure.