Which type of guilt involves feeling responsible for a death due to one's own actions?

• A. Separation
• B. Moral
• C. Survival
• D. Causal

Answer: (D)

Guilt of this kind centers on a sense of responsibility tied directly to one’s own actions. When someone feels they caused a death through something they did or failed to do, the guilt is about attribution of causation—they believe their behavior directly led to the outcome. This is causal guilt. It can arise even if there’s no legal blame or clear external fault, because the person is focusing on their own role in bringing about the death.

In contrast, moral guilt is about feeling you did something morally wrong, not specifically tied to causing a death. Survival guilt comes from surviving when others did not, and separation guilt relates to the distress of losing or being separated from loved ones, not to responsibility for harm. So the scenario described aligns with causal guilt, since the core idea is feeling responsible for a death due to one’s own actions.