Jeff Elison, Ph.D.

Jeff spent 16 years in the software industry before making a mid-life shift to study psychology. Having recently completed his doctorate (May, 2003), Jeff is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Denver working with Susan Harter. Jeff developed the Compass of Shame Scale (CoSS) to assess the use of shame management scripts described by Nathanson's model. The CoSS has been translated into Spanish, Hungarian, and Taiwanese, as well as extended with an adaptive scale, a violence scale, a reduced language version for adolescents and adults with limited reading skills, and a version to allow teachers to rate students. Due to demand, a children's version using cartoon scenarios is planned for the future. The CoSS has been used to explore relations among the four poles of the Compass of Shame and self-esteem, depression, anxiety, hostility and anger, and psychopathy. Jeff's most recent projects have explored definitions of, and distinctions between, shame and guilt. Results support a model of shame as a unitary affect and guilt as a socio-legal condition with which any affect may be associated. Thus, there are multiple emotions of guilt. Current projects continue the shame versus guilt work, as well as exploring what distinguishes humiliation and the link between humiliation and violence.

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