The Relationship between Moral Characters and Aggression among University Students: The Mediating Role of Shame and Guilt Emotions

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of shame and guilt emotions in the relationship between moral characters and aggression.

The research method was descriptive and correlational. The participants of this study were 343 (142 males, 193 females and 8 people did not specify their gender) undergraduate students of Shiraz University in the academic year 1398 who were selected by multistage cluster sampling and completed the Moral Characters Scale (Khormaei and Ghaemi, 1397), the Shame and Guilt Proneness Questionnaire (Cohen et al, 2011) and the Aggression Scale (Bass and Perry, 1992). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results of structural relationships showed that forgiving and pious characters predict aggression negatively and conscientiousness characters predicts aggression positively. According to the findings, honesty, etiquetee and conscientiousness characters predict feeling of guilt positively, etiquettee character predicts feeling of shame negatively and pious character has a negative relationship with the feeling of shame. Also, feeling of shame positively and feeling of guilt negatively predicted aggression. Moreover, the mediating role of shame and guilt emotions was confirmed in the relationship between moral characters and aggression (P < 0/05).

Overall, the findings showed that moral characters and the emotion of guilt reduce aggression.