The Stress-and-Coping Model of Forgiveness

Abstract

Researchers often employ the stress-and-coping model of forgiveness as a framework for understanding the forgiveness process and interpreting the health and well-being outcomes associated with forgiving. In the first part of this chapter, I review the basic tenets of the model, including outlining the various ways in which individual coping strategies have been conceptualized, and I summarize the research that has applied different coping approaches to forgiveness. In the second part of the chapter, I argue for opening a new frontier in the psychology of forgiveness, encouraging researchers to measure interdependent actor and partner effects as they relate to the antecedents and effects of the forgiveness process. I review the fundamental principles of dyadic coping models and propose that theorizing and research on forgiveness will be advanced by paying attention to the promise offered by dyadic coping.