In order to clarify groups of emotions that compose shame, 309 university students were asked to rate 27 emotional items in accordance with their past shameful experience. The factor analysis revealed six groups of emotions composing shame, namely "Confusional Fear", "Emotion of Self-abnegation", "Basic Shame", "Emotion of Self-reproaching Shrink", "Awkwardness", and "Bashfulness". In another survey, the rated scores of 161 university students were examined in order to elucidate the relationship of the six groups of shame emotions with the multiple situational categories of shame, e.g. 'Public Shame' and 'Private Shame', which, prior studies had considered. "Emotion of Self-abnegation" was felt with the most intensity in both 'Public Shame' and 'Private Shame', while in the other situational categories of shame, it marked the least intensity. Since 'Public Shame' and 'Private Shame' were found to be the typical situations of shame, these results suggested that "Emotion of Self-abnegation" could distinguish between a typical shame situation from those that are not.
