Abstract: The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that may cause shame or guilt and to differentiate these two kindsof emotions. A group of 48 college students, aged 19.96±1.13, participated in this research. A set of written negative situationswhich can cause one feel both shame and guiltwere presented to the Ss. The Sswere asked to image themselves in the described situation, and then responded to a questionnaire regarding their emotional degree and reasons of shame and guilt. There are two parts in the research. Part one examined simultaneouslythe hypotheses of the impacts of "public vs. private" and "personal inadequacy vs. moral norm violation" on shame and guilt. Part two studied the hypothesis of the impact of "hurt oneself vs. hurt others" on both emotions, which was newly advanced by Xie Boin her phenomenology research. The results of this research indicated that: (1) "Public vs. private" had significant differences between shame and guilt(p<0.05). The presence of an audience (“public”) more likely led to feel shame. However, feeling guilt didn’t need any audiences (“private”) in general. (2) “Violation of moral norms” didn’t have significant difference on causing shame or guilt, while“personal inadequacy” evoked more shame(p<0.01). (3) The interaction between“public vs. private” and“personal inadequacy vs. violation of moral norms” was not significant. (4) “Hurt oneself” caused significantly more shame(p<0.05), while“hurt others” evoked more guilt(p<0.01).

Key words: shame, guilt, hurt oneself, hurt others, Chinese college students