There is a difference between shame and guilt. Shame is how others make you feel about your actions or thoughts.
Guilt is how your actions or thoughts make you feel from inside in the form of repentance.
Social pressure can make you feel shameful but not necessarily guilty.
It sounds like guilt is a consequence that you experience after something occurs that you don't want. However, shame is an emotional situation that doesn't have to be after an event. Individuals can be shamed because of their traumas or regarding mental health background.
I wonder if both shame and guilt can occur without the presence of others? If it can then there is more to it then social conditioning. Or perhaps we have become so moulded by society that the values of the group become part of the core library of values each of us holds, then the appearance of both of these would still retain some social element even if we are alone.
Another interesting question might be whether shame and embarrassment share a causal link as in shame triggers embarrassment. Thus embarassment would be that feeling whenever social norms are ignored or forgotten.
Great post, some interesting replies too.
I also see guilt as something that occurs after finding yourself in a situation that has already been established by some social stance to be shameful/uncalled for.
Oh, so people can't make you feel guilty. Is guilt innate emotion or something we develop over a period of time?
This is a hot topic. I wonder if there is a mechanism that allows one person to feel shame through empathy or by association with another person.