[tame_deuces]

Well, the pretty much accepted definition of guilt within psychology is pretty much on par with your everyday definition of it. Some sort of affective state stemming from having done something you think you shouldn't have.

There is also evidence that points out that guilt has slightly different 'meaning' and 'triggers' in different cultures, which makes it natural to assume that guilt atleast partially is a cultural construct we have learned throughout our upbringing.

As usual, evolutionary theory has theorized that guilt is an adaption that makes survival easier within a social context. Iow. the ability to feel guilt is somehow linked to 'making it' in a social society.

All things considered, and with my own best educated guess, both things make sense. At some level the capacity for feeling guilt is probably part of our biology, but what sets it will differ from culture to culture and with what you have learned.

As for dealing with it, there are probably many ways to go about that from individual to individual. There are 'therapy' strategies for it within psychology, but clinical psychology is not my field so I don't know much about them.