Uczucie świadczące o naszej niedoskonałości, czyli wstyd w definicjach studentów lubelskich

The aim of this paper is to analyse the definitions of the word wstyd ‘shame, embarrassment’ formulated by the students of the Faculty of Humanities at Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin (overall, one hundred and fifty people). Before the analysis is undertaken, the author refers to what is known about this complex and equivocal feeling. Most of the students provided open, cognitive definitions of the word, but some of them also gave closed, structural and ostensive definitions. In the majority of the instances, the notion was defined in negative terms, but in a few cases its positive aspects were mentioned. In such cases, wstyd was described as a regulator of behaviour, as a factor which prevents people from acting in socially unacceptable ways. Hence such terms used in its description as a compass or a brake.