Can guilt be considered an interpersonal sensitivity index? Interpersonal reactivity and interpersonal guilt?

Can guilt be considered an interpersonal sensitivity index? To answer this question, the study analyzed the relationship between interpersonal guilt and perspective taking and empathic concern. Furthermore, it analyzed the relationship between interpersonal guilt and another interpersonal reactivity variable: personal distress. Adolescents, young people and adults of both sexes answered a test expressly designed to measure interpersonal guilt as well as the IRI (Davis, 1980). Perspective taking showed a significant correlation with empathic concern in both sexes and the three age groups, and empathic concern showed predictive power on interpersonal guilt in both sexes and two age groups. These results support Hoffman s theory of interpersonal guilt (2000) and enable us to consider guilt, up to a certain point, as an interpersonal sensitivity index. Furthermore, personal distress showed predictive power on interpersonal guilt in both sexes and the three age groups. This result suggests that, in this kind of guilt, together with empathy, an anxious component is also activated, which is congruent with the bi-factorial model of guilt proposed by Etxebarria and Apodaca (2008).