Abstract:

For decades, the researches on guilt have attracted significant attention, most of which were focused on the children development and mental health. While in recent years, the focus has been turned to the moral dimension of guilt, concerning more about the moral values of emotions in interpersonal relationship and social events. Guilt, a moral emotion, develops with moral consciousness and plays an important role in maintaining and reconstructing social relations and the development of emotions. From the perspective of morality, this review gives detailed discussions on the definition, generation mechanism, behavioral response and prosocial impacts of guilt. It is hoped that this study can provide some new insights into domestic studies in this field.

Key words: guilt, morality, compensate, prosocial impacts