Conscience is basically the act of reason, distinguished from the concomitant feelings which support the judgment of conscience. In the neurotic, there are emotions which interfere in this process whereby the emotions and the judgment of the conscience are not completely in conformity. People have to be taught to follow the judgment of conscience and not their feelings. The force causing the feeling of guilt is the superego, although Freud said it was a fusion of social and moral factors, as well as their education. It is a quasi-habit because it really doesn't completely involve the reason.
Animals can have guilty feelings.
The following of the superego is a repression of the emotions undertaken by other emotions. The conscience when it guides it invites to the creation of value through love, whereas the superego orders an act to gain appraisal, or out of fear that love will be taken away. Superego experiences a speedy transfer to the deep feeling of guilt to the feeling of value by confessing before authority. A sound moral education should grant the ability to discern the rational judgment of the conscience and not the feelings, justifying the feelings only when in accord with reason. Conscience's judgments should be recognized as in accord with the moral guidance expressed in the divine law, although all the implications of the moral law don't have to be known.