Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of Iranian Version of External Shame scale

Objective: Shame is one of the important self-conscious emotions that have a crucial function in mental well-being and vulnerability to mental disorders. Lack of shame and being very ashamed one come with psychopathology. Shame consists of two important components, those are internal and external. External shame scale at first was designed by Gross and his colleagues. According to their factor analysis, 3 factors of feel of inferiority, feelings of emptiness and being ashamed of making mistake are determined for external shame. Method: In order to survey about psychometric properties and factor structure analysis of this scale, 210 individuals from Shahid Beheshti university of medical sciences in Tehran were chosen in available sampling procedure. The participants were also asked to complete the scales of external shame, self- compassion, negative affect and perfectionism.Liserl-8 andSSPS-18 were used for analyzing data. Cronbach's Alpha, Correlation Coefficient and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were calculated. Results: The three-factor structure of external shame scale was supported by the results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis in Iranian sample(RMSEA=0/09،NFI=0/94،CFI=0/96). External Shame Scale had the positive and meaningful correlation with perfectionism(17/0) and negative affect(51/0)and had negative and meaningful correlation with self-compassion(21/0). Also Cornbrach's Alpha coefficient, for the whole of scale and factors of feel of inferiority, feelings of emptiness and being ashamed of making mistake were gained 0/93, 0/92, 0/71 and 0/75 respectively. Conclusion: The three-factor structure of external shame scale demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in Shahid Beheshti University. Shame positively relate to symptoms of psychopathology. The external shame scale have suitable psychometric properties for the use of research and clinical practice.