Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.
What things make you feel ashamed?
How do you feel if you do something wrong and disappoint a friend?
People who feel shame and remorse strongly make better friends, employees and boy/girl friends, a study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests.
Researchers asked people participating to think about what they would do in different scenarios, then measured their replies on a "guilt and shame proneness" scale.
Those with higher scores of guilt were more likely to be someone you can trust and someone that is caring , they discovered.
They also, are more likely to be sympathetic, and to see other people's point of view, and to think about the results of their behavior.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that being prone to guilt is not the same thing as feeling guilty after doing something wrong.
Those who are guilt-prone anticipate having negative or bad feelings before they do something that they feel is wrong.
It also found that women are more guilt-prone than men.
One of the writers, Taya Cohen, said; "The guilt-proneness scale has the potential to be an important tool for predicting which individuals are likely to behave unethically inside and outside the workplace."
Guessing meaning from context (the words around that word or phrase).
Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. The answers are below the table.
|
remorse |
A |
1 |
A feeling of being guilty, sorry for doing something wrong |
|
scenarios |
B |
2 |
How you see something, what you believe or think |
|
proneness |
C |
3 |
Something that is very necessary to enable/allow something to happen. Needed to be able to do something |
|
point of view |
D |
4 |
Likely or very possible that something can happen |
|
anticipate |
E |
5 |
Legal (usually) but not good or right |
|
an important tool |
F |
6 |
Able to understand or feel another person’s feelings |
|
unethically |
G |
7 |
imagined or not real situations of possibility |
|
sympathetic |
H |
8 |
Guess or predict what will happen next, prepare for what will happen |
A=1, B=7, C=4, D=2, E=8, F=3, G=5, H=6
Some example sentences using the new words to help you to better understand their meaning.
1. He felt remorse after his girlfriend was angry that he had not called her all day.
2. Predicting dangerous scenarios is an important tool for emergency workers like firefighters or police.
3. Do not leave food garbage outside because cats are prone to steal it.
4. The Republicans and Democrats in the U.S.A. have totally different points of view on many things.
5. The teacher anticipated that students would use their cell phones to cheat, so she banned cell phones in the test.
6. Going on a date with your friend’s girlfriend is legal, but many people think it is very unethical.
7. Care workers like those in the Red Cross are sympathetic to the needs of poor people.
Some discussion questions using the new words to help you better understand the word meaning and how to use them correctly. Try to use the words in your answer.
1. Do you agree with the reading that people who feel shame feel more remorse? Do you think it is always true? Why?
2. Describe a scenario when you felt remorse for something you did wrong? What happened?
3. What kinds of questions would you anticipate would have been on the guilt and proneness scale? What kinds of people are prone to feel guilt?
4. What is your point of view about today’s topic?
5. If you are an employer, would you think that using a survey or questions like in the study would be an important tool in giving somebody a job with your company?
6. Describe the difference between ethical and legal?
7. How would someone show they are sympathetic to another person’s point of view?
ECK Education
