Dear Thomas.

As far as I know there are many studies investigating the questions you raise. Many of them address several forms of same and distinguish shame from guilt. What follows are some references to authors who addressed your questions and some considerations I made on shame with basis on a Net search. Of course, you can begin by a NET search to found material related to your questions. 

According to psychologist Michael Lewis, shame it’s the quintessential human emotion. All extravagant behaviors are reactions to shame.  In the views of psychiatrist Donald Nathanson, dysfunctions in families are a case in point

After decades of obscurity and confusion between guilt and shame, shame is increasingly recognized as a powerful, painful and potentially dangerous emotion, especially for those who don’t understand its origins or know how to manage it. Thus, shame is a complex emotional response that all humans acquire during early development. It’s a normal feeling about ourselves and our behavior, not necessarily a symptom of an illness or pathology. In many situations, it’s even abnormal if we don’t experience it.

Embarrassment and shyness, for example, are two forms of shame that seldom cause trouble — unless they’re extreme or long lasting. And humility, another of the forms shame can take, is generally considered socially desirable.

Note that there is amassing evidence that shows that problems occur when shame or humiliation becomes an integral part of a person’s self-image or sense of self-worth. Over the past two decades, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have reported that abnormal styles of handling shame play an important role in social phobias, eating disorders, domestic violence, substance abuse, road rage, schoolyard and workplace rampages, sexual offenses and a host of other personal and social problems.

Marilyn J. Sorensen, author of “Breaking the Chain of Low Self-Esteem” and clinical psychologist in Portland, Oregon, explains how such disorders originate. Early in life, individuals develop an internalized view of themselves as adequate or inadequate within the world. Children who are continually criticized, severely punished, neglected, abandoned, or in other ways abused or mistreated get the message that they do not ‘fit’ in the world — that they are inadequate, inferior or unworthy.”

These feelings of inferiority are the genesis of low self-esteem, Sorenson says that Individuals with low self-esteem become overly sensitive and fearful in many situations. They are afraid they won’t know the rules or that they have blundered, misspoken or acted in ways others might consider inappropriate. Or they might perceive that others reject or are critical of them. Once low self-esteem is formed, the person becomes hypersensitive and s/he experiences, say self-esteem attacks that take the form of embarrassment or shame.

Unlike guilt, which is the feeling of doing something wrong, shame is the feeling of being something wrong. When a person experiences shame, s/he feels that there is something basically wrong with him/her.

According to several psychologists and psychiatrists, shame is a common emotional response in old children of alcoholic parents, as well as those who grew up with depressed parents, abuse, religious fanaticism, war, cultural oppression, or adult or sibling death. All of these experiences cause an individual to feel vulnerable, helpless and shamed. Shame’s effects are more damaging than those of guilt. Guilt is positive. It’s a response of psychologically healthy individuals who realize they have done something wrong. It helps them act more positively, more responsibly, often to correct what they’ve done. Unlike to guilt, shame is not productive for it tends to direct individuals into destructive behaviors. When we focus on what we did wrong, we can correct it; but when we’re convinced that we are wrong as a result of shame, our whole sense of self is eroded. That’s why guilt doesn’t produce the anger, rage or other irrational behaviors that shame does. .

I hope that this helps.

Best regards. 

Dear Thomas.

As far as I know there are many studies investigating the questions you raise. Many of them address several forms of same and distinguish shame from guilt. What follows are some references to authors who addressed your questions and some considerations I made on shame with basis on a Net search. Of course, you can begin by a NET search to found material related to your questions. 

According to psychologist Michael Lewis, shame it’s the quintessential human emotion. All extravagant behaviors are reactions to shame.  In the views of psychiatrist Donald Nathanson, dysfunctions in families are a case in point

After decades of obscurity and confusion between guilt and shame, shame is increasingly recognized as a powerful, painful and potentially dangerous emotion, especially for those who don’t understand its origins or know how to manage it. Thus, shame is a complex emotional response that all humans acquire during early development. It’s a normal feeling about ourselves and our behavior, not necessarily a symptom of an illness or pathology. In many situations, it’s even abnormal if we don’t experience it.

Embarrassment and shyness, for example, are two forms of shame that seldom cause trouble — unless they’re extreme or long lasting. And humility, another of the forms shame can take, is generally considered socially desirable.

Note that there is amassing evidence that shows that problems occur when shame or humiliation becomes an integral part of a person’s self-image or sense of self-worth. Over the past two decades, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have reported that abnormal styles of handling shame play an important role in social phobias, eating disorders, domestic violence, substance abuse, road rage, schoolyard and workplace rampages, sexual offenses and a host of other personal and social problems.

Marilyn J. Sorensen, author of “Breaking the Chain of Low Self-Esteem” and clinical psychologist in Portland, Oregon, explains how such disorders originate. Early in life, individuals develop an internalized view of themselves as adequate or inadequate within the world. Children who are continually criticized, severely punished, neglected, abandoned, or in other ways abused or mistreated get the message that they do not ‘fit’ in the world — that they are inadequate, inferior or unworthy.”

These feelings of inferiority are the genesis of low self-esteem, Sorenson says that Individuals with low self-esteem become overly sensitive and fearful in many situations. They are afraid they won’t know the rules or that they have blundered, misspoken or acted in ways others might consider inappropriate. Or they might perceive that others reject or are critical of them. Once low self-esteem is formed, the person becomes hypersensitive and s/he experiences, say self-esteem attacks that take the form of embarrassment or shame.

Unlike guilt, which is the feeling of doing something wrong, shame is the feeling of being something wrong. When a person experiences shame, s/he feels that there is something basically wrong with him/her.

According to several psychologists and psychiatrists, shame is a common emotional response in old children of alcoholic parents, as well as those who grew up with depressed parents, abuse, religious fanaticism, war, cultural oppression, or adult or sibling death. All of these experiences cause an individual to feel vulnerable, helpless and shamed. Shame’s effects are more damaging than those of guilt. Guilt is positive. It’s a response of psychologically healthy individuals who realize they have done something wrong. It helps them act more positively, more responsibly, often to correct what they’ve done. Unlike to guilt, shame is not productive for it tends to direct individuals into destructive behaviors. When we focus on what we did wrong, we can correct it; but when we’re convinced that we are wrong as a result of shame, our whole sense of self is eroded. That’s why guilt doesn’t produce the anger, rage or other irrational behaviors that shame does. .

I hope that this helps.

Best regards. 

Since Ruth Benedict made the distinction between individualistic "guilt" cultures and group oriented "shame" cultures, the critical debate has continued within and beyond Anthropology with regard to what extent the concepts of guilt and shame are culturally constructed. Much psychological research tends to be positivistic and functionalist, but implicitly adopts a western individualistic cultural formation. To see guilt as positive and action oriented rather neglects the way that it has been used by religions as a form of social control. Foucault sets out connections between guilt and discipline, surveillance, examination and confession, in a world that aims to produce self-disciplined subjects as a by-product of modernity - that is, Guilt shifts historically as well as culturally. Melanie Klein's Love, Guilt and Reparation offers an alternative psychoanalytic approach with social implications. For Benedict, Guilt was individualistic and based on an atomistic view of self, shame was collective, public and based on a view of self as part of a group. There are certainly cultures in which shame is very differently configured - regarding public sex practice and its discussion, for example. 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/eth.1990.18.3.02a00030/full

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Klein%2520Love%2520Guilt.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwi4kOSmlqvTAhUGJFAKHZ4CCMYQFghkMAo&usg=AFQjCNEUmzyjhut8ncDiykjKJwxEB1htMA&sig2=0y5bpQqnjHfX1E4aYxlxfA

All cultures have prohibitions. When a violation occurs the violator is shamed, or with regret, feels ashamed. The nature of that experience, however, is somewhat culture bound so "shame" becomes a rather broad word describing, in different cultures, a sense of having done something that is not respected and for which a shameful person feels remorse.

Thank you for your ideas and for your explanations.

I already did quite some reading on the topic. Yet I have not found much empirical studies investigating the question whether shame is a universal emotion that exists in all cultures. If you could suggest publications answering that question I would be most grateful.

seems when you pin point it down to cultures, i believe only if there are cultures not studied, as it strikes me that even a dog has a natural instinct of guilt, can that indicate it comes in all human too??   (just my 2 pence)

These publications may interest you.

http://silkworth.net/aahistory/shame_guilt_ernest_kurtz.html

http://www.cep.ucsb.edu/papers/2012_SznycerEtal_ShameCrossCulture.pdf

Thank you all.

I found the answer to my question in the second paper you posted Stephen Cheung. Thank you.

Thanks for your comments, Thomas. There should be more perspectives on this interesting and important phenomenon out there.