申論題

      According to philosopher Hilge Landweer of the Free University of Berlin, certain
conditions must come together for someone to feel shame. Notably, the person must be aware
of having __1__ a norm. He or she must also view the norm as desirable and binding because
only then can the wrongdoing make one feel truly uncomfortable. It is not even always
necessary for any ___2___ person to be present； we need only imagine another’s judgment.
Often someone will ___3___ an image of a parent asking, “Aren’t you ashamed?” Indeed, we
may __4___ such admonishments so completely that the norms and expectations laid on us by
our parents in childhood continue to affect us well into adulthood.
      June Tangney of George Mason University has studied shame for decades. In numerous
collaborations with her colleagues, she has found that people who have a propensity for feeling
shame—a trait termed shame-proneness—often have low self-esteem, which means, ____5___,
that a certain degree of self-esteem may protect us from excessive feelings of shame. Tangney
and Dearing are among the investigators who have found that shame-proneness can also
increase one’s risk for other psychological problems. The link with depression is particularly
strong； for instance, one large-scale meta-analysis in which researchers examined 108 studies
involving more than 22,000 subjects showed a clear connection.
      It has been speculated that humans feel shame because it ___6___ some kind of
evolutionary advantage on our early ancestors. For instance, it can potentially promote a
group’s well-being by encouraging individuals to adhere to social conventions and to work to
stay in others’ good graces. Yet Tangney and others argue that shame reduces one’s tendency to
behave in socially constructive ways； rather it is shame’s cousin, guilt, that promotes socially
___7___ behavior. Further, guilt is a sign that a person can be empathetic, a trait that is
important for one’s ability to take someone else’s perspective, to behave __8___ and to have
close, caring relationships. Indeed, we can feel a sense of guilt only if we can put ourselves in
another’s shoes and recognize that our action caused pain or was injurious to the other person.
As is generally true of young children, people who are unable to ___9___ cannot feel guilt.
Guilt holds us back from harming others and encourages us to form relationships for the
common good. When we feel guilty, we turn our gaze outward and seek strategies to reverse
the harm we have done. When we feel ashamed, we turn our attention inward, focusing mainly
on the emotions __10___ within us and attending less to what is going on around us.