Good Example Of Essay On Human Emotion Of Guilt

In a common man’s definition of guilt, it is simply the lingering remorseful feeling that comes with an act of offense, deviation from a common norm or violation of one’s own moral rules.
Guilt is a feeling that develops with time as one grows older in due time manifests itself more in a conscience being. It is a moral emotion. One that allows one to assess his or herself with respect to others. Compared to other basic emotions such as happiness or fear, it requires the extensive development of ones cognitive abilities.
Over time as society developed and evolved in sync with man, so did social aspects of man’s life which included guilt. In the beginning man gave little thought and time to how others felt when they were aggrieved. However as time passed by, man saw the need to peacefully and coherently co exist in society. With this the emotions that came with feeling guilty were experienced more frequently and intensely than in past periods.
However, fast forward time to the present day and age and the frequency of guilt man experiences is on a downward trend. This does not mean man’s evolution is now going backward but is basically down to a drop in the moral standards in society.
Evolutionary theories show that for one to maintain stable social relationships, one needs the intervention of guilt. When man still existed in tribes and hunted animals while gathering crop, survival needed the cooperation of all in society than it does today. Those with low morality, meaning less guilt, were treated as ostracisms perpetrators which meant inevitable death. Getting along with others well meant a better functioning group and these individuals were rewarded for their deed with prolonged life.
Research shows that women are the most likely to experience the feeling of guilt between the two genders. This number is significantly high compared to their male counter parts. The problem in this current society is not the fact that women feel a lot of guilt but the fact that men feel too little of guilt. The feeling of intense guilt is not only common among adolescent girls but cuts across females from young women and to their adult counterparts. Women also showed the high interpersonal sensitivity compared to their male counter parts.
Based on different age groups the levels of the human emotion of guilt varied and fluctuated rapidly. Women who are in the 40-50 year old age bracket have a high intensity of habitual gift compared to their male counter parts in the same age group. The same can be said for young and adolescent girls compared to their male counterparts but at a slightly less steep rate. This is primarily caused by certain educational practices that are still being practiced that require more from females socially. These practices are believed to be no longer in use while the contrary is true in some societies.
The interpersonal sensitivity which positively correlates with levels of guilt are found to be relatively low for men between the age groups of 25 to 5 years. This basically because guilt is commonly associated with weakness in most societies. This is because lack of sensitivity is associated with the non existence of unnecessary weakness.
All in all, with the changing social times and cultural contexts of today’s life, guilt is becoming a less powerful social tool for moral checks in today’s society.