Measures Of Forgiveness Research Articles

Forgiveness, Moral Disengagement, and Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Young Social Activists in Hong Kong

Social movements may bring positive social changes. However, escalated levels of violence and delinquency in some campaigns caused public concerns about infringing personal rights and destroying public property. In modern societies, we encourage mutual respect, peace, and appropriate conflict resolutions and avoid the use of aggression across situations. This cross-sectional study examined forgiveness, moral disengagement, and reactive and proactive aggression among different types of young social activists in Hong Kong. Findings would provide insights into intervention strategies for reducing aggressive behaviors in young people and helping them restore their quality of life. Our participants were 1046 local secondary school and tertiary students (583 males and 463 females) aged 12 to 25 years (M = 16.95, SD = 3.29). They completed a questionnaire about their participation in local campaigns, with psychological measures of forgiveness, moral disengagement, and aggression. The respondents were then divided into three categories: non-activists (NA), moderate activists (MA), and activists with delinquent/violent action (ADA). ANOVAs were used to examine the differences between these three types of social activists. Results indicated that ADA reported using more reactive and proactive aggression than NA, and MA reported using more reactive but not proactive aggression than NA. ADA had significantly higher levels of moral disengagement overall than NA and MA. Regarding forgiveness, both ADA and MA had significantly lower levels of absence of negative than NA. Implications for psychotherapy, education, and social policies will be discussed.

Development and validation of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory 30-item version in Argentina

Research on forgiveness has received growing academic interest. The Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI) is one of the most widely used interpersonal forgiveness measures in the world. However, its validation study had not been conducted in Latin America. This study aimed to investigate the structural validity of the EFI 30-item version (EFI-30) in Argentina. An online survey was administrated including the EFI-30 and a social desirability scale, as well as demographic questions. A convenience sample (N = 472) was recruited. All participants were originally from Argentina, and 47.2% were married or cohabiting in a relationship. Factor analysis was used to evaluate structural validity. Part of the EFI-30 is a single-item forgiveness question that was used to examine the inventory’s convergent validity. Other conventional psychometric tests were also performed to validate the previous analyses. The results confirmed the six-factor structure of the EFI-30, namely, positive affect, negative affect, positive behaviour, negative behaviour, positive cognition, and negative cognition. Findings are consistent with previous validation studies across countries. The strong scalability of the Argentine EFI-30 provides multiple avenues for future research. The study might be replicated among other demographic groups (e.g., adolescents) in Argentina.

A Model of Connections Between Positive Characteristics: Emotional Intelligence Links Mindfulness to Positive Characteristics with Emotion Elements

AbstractThis research examined a model positing that mindfulness is a foundation for the development of emotional intelligence and other positive characteristics with emotional elements; these characteristics include self-compassion, gratitude, empathy, resilience, and forgiveness. The model further postulates that adaptive emotional processing, as operationalised by emotional intelligence, may connect mindfulness to positive characteristics with emotion elements. Participants completed trait-level measures of mindfulness, emotional intelligence, self-compassion, gratitude, empathy, resilience, and forgiveness. Greater trait mindfulness was significantly associated with higher levels of emotional intelligence as well as more compassion, gratitude, resilience, and forgiveness. Higher levels of emotional intelligence were significantly associated with more self-compassion, gratitude, empathy, resilience, and forgiveness. Emotional intelligence significantly mediated, or connected, the relationship of mindfulness with gratitude, empathy, resilience, and forgiveness. The results overall support a theoretical model that proposes that mindfulness and emotional intelligence may be foundational for the development of positive characteristics with emotion elements.

Understanding Others’ Mental State Makes it Easy to Forgive: Number of Friends Moderate the Process

Objective: To investigate the association between theory of mind, ability and forgiveness, along with the moderating role of various demographic influences. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of study: Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad Pakistan, from May to Aug 2020. Methodology: Four hundred eighty-seven young adults with an age range of 20-30 years were included. Reading Mind in the Eyes test and behavioural measures of forgiveness were explored. Correlation and moderation analysis were performed. Results: Results presented that forgiveness and theory of mind were positively correlated (r=0.71, p<0.05) and also supported the established demographic influences, i.e., women (11.59±5.39) score more than men on the indicator of Theory of Mind (9.92±5.56). In addition, those who have interest in literature (11.30±5.56) tended reading others’ mental state to a greater extent than others (9.49±5.41). Several friends emerged as a moderator for the relationship between the theory of mind and forgiveness. In contrast, fewer friends depicted the best tendency to infer others’ mindsets or empathize, thus facilitating forgiveness. Conclusion: Our findings depict that the number of friends has a moderating role in the relationship between the theory of mind and forgiveness. It shows that an increase in forgiveness is associated with an increase in the theory of mind for all groups.

Gratitude to God and relational virtues

ABSTRACT Despite the flourishing psychological literature on gratitude that has accumulated over the past several decades, researchers have only recently started to programmatically study Gratitude to God (GTG). Given that gratitude has consistently demonstrated positive relationships with relational virtues, the current study examined the degree to which GTG is associated with forgiveness, relational humility, and altruism, above and beyond domain-general gratitude and religious commitment. Participants (N = 582 undergraduates) rated themselves on measures of religious commitment, domain-general gratitude, GTG, forgiveness, relational humility, and altruism. GTG positively predicted forgiveness over and above domain-general gratitude. GTG positively predicted relational humility over and above domain-general gratitude in participants with high levels of religious commitment. For altruism, neither GTG nor domain-general gratitude was a significant predictor, but religious commitment was a positive predictor. We conclude with a discussion of methodological limitations and suggestions for future research.

Forgiving lark, resentful owl: Self-control mediates the relationship between chronotype and forgiveness

ABSTRACT Considerable evidence shows that nocturnal chronotypes have increased odds of mental health problems, poor academic performance, and impairment in executive functions. Although the cognitive and health costs of evening-oriented preference are well-documented in the literature, little is known about its interpersonal costs. In this article, we propose that people with a preference for an evening chronotype show a lower tendency to forgive following an interpersonal offense because of their lower self-control ability. Three studies using independent samples and complementary measures reveal that morning-evening preference plays a role in the emergence of forgiveness, which provides support for our theoretical perspective. In Study 1, we found that evening-type students were less forgiving when responding to a transgression than morning-type students. Employing a longer measure of forgiveness and a more representative population, Study 2 replicated our initial findings and supported our hypothesis regarding the mediating role of self-control. To circumvent methodological issues associated with self-report data, Study 3 used a behavioral measure of forgiveness and revealed that chronotype can also predict actual forgiving behavior in a laboratory setting. Together, these findings suggest that diurnal preference towards eveningness not only imposes threats on people’s health, but can also incur interpersonal costs.

The Moderation Effects of Self-Construal Between Dispositional Mindfulness and Interpersonal Forgiveness.

Previous studies found an association between mindfulness and forgiveness. However, the effects of self-construal on this association are still unclear. In the present study, self-reported forgiveness and a behavioral measure of forgiveness were used to explore the moderating effect of self-construal plays between mindfulness and forgiveness among 126 participants recruited based on their mindfulness scores. Results showed that participants with high level of mindfulness in the interdependent self-construal condition reported greater forgiveness and gave more money donations towards transgressors than those in the independent self-construal condition, while there is no significant difference between interdependent and independent self-construal groups among participants with low level of mindfulness. These findings suggest that self-construal moderates the relationship between mindfulness and interpersonal forgiveness.

The interaction between forgiveness and resentment on mental health outcomes: two sides of the same coin?

ABSTRACT Forgiveness is a foundational tenet across all religions that has consistently been shown to be related to positive health outcomes. Although specific theoretical dimensions of “forgiveness” have been proposed (e.g., decisional, emotional, dispositional), there is limited evidence to suggest that they are statistically distinct constructs. However, a recent factor analysis (Yoon et al., 2022) indicated that a frequently used measure of forgiveness (i.e., Trait Forgiveness Scale) is composed of statistically distinct behavioral (i.e., willingness to forgive) and affective dimensions (i.e., resentment). Given this finding, the current study determined how these empirically distinct constructs interact to influence health. Based on 322 primarily Christian undergraduate students the results indicated: 1) willingness to forgive and resentment are significantly negatively correlated but distinct constructs; 2) religiosity is related to forgiveness but not resentment; 3) forgiveness, resentment, and their interaction are all significantly related to mental (but not physical) health; and 4) resentment partially negates the positive effects of willingness to forgive on mental health. Overall, the results suggest the need to differentiate behavioral and affective dimensions of forgiveness, that religious beliefs may promote forgiveness but not reduce resentment, and that both willingness to forgive and reducing resentment are important in promoting positive health.

To Know all is to Forgive all: The Effect of Foreign Experiences on Forgiveness.

By going abroad, individuals get the opportunity to explore a new country and to immerse themselves in a new culture. Despite being personally and professionally rewarding, little is known about interpersonal attitudes and behavior change that accompany living abroad experiences. The current research examines whether foreign experiences influence forgiveness. Drawing on the Structure-Appraisal Model of Multicultural Experiences and literature examining the positive effect of foreign experiences on self-control related to the suppression of impulsive retaliation, we propose that international experiences lead to a greater tendency to forgive. As predicted, we found that foreign experiences correlated positively with forgiving motivations toward transgressors across different measures of forgiveness and diverse samples (Studies 1-2). Study three compared forgiveness of individuals who had lived abroad with forgiveness of individuals who had plans to live abroad but had not done so yet. We found consistent support for the hypothesis that living abroad has an impact on forgiveness. By employing an experimental design, Study four established the causal effect of international experiences on forgiveness. Taken together, these findings suggest that when individuals experience foreign cultures, they learn to understand interpersonal conflicts from different perspectives and show greater leniency and forgiveness toward transgressions.

'You Treated Me Like an Object, I Don't Forgive You!': The Effect of Dehu- manization on Interpersonal Forgiveness from the Victim's Perspective.

There is a gap in the literature on the impact of the perceptions of a victim of an offense upon their forgiveness towards the offender, particularly when those perceptions include dehumanization. The present cross-sectional exploratory study aimed at examining whether the perceptions of being treated in a dehumanized fashion influences interpersonal forgiveness, avoidance, and revenge intentions of dehumanized victims towards the offender. We recruited 149 individuals from the general population, who took part in an online task, consisting of remembering an offense they had been victim of and of a set of self-reported measures of dehumanization (uniqueness and nature), interpersonal forgiveness, avoidance, and revenge intentions. We used multiple linear regression to test the study's hypotheses. The perceived denial of the victims' human uniqueness was not associated with the dependent variables, whereas the perceived denial of the victims' human nature was significantly and negatively associated with interpersonal forgiveness and positively with avoidance and revenge intentions, after controlling for the effects of a set of known covariates. The results revealed a role for dehumanization (nature) in predicting the victims' interpersonal forgiveness, avoidance, and revenge intentions. Implications for further research are discussed.

Forgiveness as a predictor of mental health in citizens living in the military conflict zone (2019-2020)

Aim. Empirical research focused on the study of forgiveness as a predictor of mental health in citizens living in the east of Ukraine in a situation of military conflict. Methods. The participants were 302 Ukrainian citizens (152 women; 150 men): 145 citizens living in eastern Ukraine (74 women; 71 men), aged 18 to 50 years and 157 citizens living in the centre of Ukraine (78 women; 79 men), aged 18 to 50 years. The main research methods were as follows: Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5); Mental Health Outcome (BSI-12); Trait Forgivingness (dispositional) Scale; A Short-Version of Forbearance Scale (FS-8); Forgiveness Measures Decision to Forgive Scale (DTFS); Emotional Forgiveness Scale (EFS); The Adult Hope Scale; Flourish and Secure Flourish Scales. Results. The phenomenon of forgiveness is examined in the article. A more pronounced degree of depression and anxiety was found in citizens living in eastern Ukraine compared to citizens living in the centre of Ukraine. A more pronounced degree of mental health, happiness, and life satisfaction has been observed in citizens living in the centre of Ukraine compared to citizens living in eastern Ukraine. Conclusion. Hope, happiness, life satisfaction, and a tendency to forgiveness are factors of mental health. Tendency to forgiveness is positively correlated with decisional forgiveness, hope, emotional forgiveness, tolerance, and acceptance of others, mental health, happiness, and life satisfaction, as well as tolerance for the mistakes of others.

The Mediating Role of Forgiveness and Self-Efficacy in the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Treatment Motivation Among Malaysian Male Drug Addicts.

Studies have reported high rates of childhood maltreatment among individuals with drug addiction problems; however, investigation about the potentially protective factors to mitigate the effects of maltreatment experiences on motivation to engage in addiction treatment has received less attention. This study aims at exploring the mediating effects of forgiveness and self-efficacy on the association between childhood maltreatment and treatment motivation among drug addicts. A total of 360 male drug addicts (mean age = 33.34, SD = 7.25) were recruited from three mandatory inpatient rehabilitation centers in Malaysia. Participants completed a package of self-report questionnaires including measures of childhood maltreatment experiences, forgiveness, self-efficacy, and motivation for treatment. The analysis conducted using the structural equation model (SEM) revealed that childhood maltreatment significantly predicted lower treatment motivation, while forgiveness and self-efficacy played a fully mediating role regarding the effect of childhood maltreatment on treatment motivation. In conclusion, these findings suggest that combining the element of forgiveness and self-efficacy in treatment programs appears to benefit the drug addicts with childhood maltreatment history.

The Development of Forgiveness and Other-Focused Love

This article explores the development of forgiveness and other-focused love and examines the role of spirituality in the relationship between forgiveness and love: (a) Do forgiveness and love develop together? (b) Does love or forgiveness predict the other at a later time? (c) Does one’s spirituality moderate the relationship between forgiveness and love? A total of 47 participants from a large Christian university in Central Virginia filled out measures of compassionate love, forgiveness, and dedication to God at Time 1 (T1) and measures of love and forgiveness after 4 weeks at Time 2 (T2). Findings showed that those who gained the most in forgiveness began low in both forgiveness and love. While love at T1 did not predict forgiveness at T1 or T2, forgiveness at T1 positively predicted love at T2 ( r = .36, p < .05), indicating that forgiveness temporally preceded love. However, the relationship between the two no longer existed after controlling for love at T1. The participants’ dedication to God at T1 did not moderate the relationship between forgiveness and love but further explained love at T2. It may be worthwhile to examine the effect of forgiveness interventions on increasing other-focused love.

Validating the Enright Forgiveness Inventory – 30 (EFI-30)

Abstract. This study reports the process of item reduction of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory – EFI, a measure of interpersonal forgiveness, from 60 to 30 items for a more practical assessment of this construct. Data from the US were used in the creation of the new measure and applied to seven nations: Austria, Brazil, Israel, South Korea, Norway, Pakistan, and Taiwan. The question was: do the best EFI-30 items from the US have discriminative power in seven other cultures? Results provided the psychometric evidence for the reduced version of the EFI-30 across cultures. The discrimination values are positive, suggesting that the selected items have the sensitivity to differentiate accurately people with different degrees of forgiveness and good psychometric properties of internal consistency.

Step by step: Testing the staircase model of intergroup apologies

AbstractDespite the assumption that intergroup apologies should lead to forgiveness in the same way that interpersonal ones do, research suggests that this is not the case. We report two studies exploring the application of the Staircase Model of Intergroup Apologies (Wohl et al., 2011), in which an intergroup apology is embedded in a broader reconciliation process. Participants read accounts of an intergroup conflict (the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland) and subsequent efforts to achieve reconciliation, focusing on an official apology issued by the IRA. The content of this apology was varied such that the steps specified by the Staircase Model were presented either sequentially (Study 1) or in a manipulated order (Study 2). Both studies yielded results that were broadly supportive of the model. There were significant effects on measures of forgiveness, perceptions of the perpetrating group, and negative emotion (in particular disgust). The implications for enhancing the efficacy of intergroup apologies are discussed.

The Children's Forgiveness Card Set: Development of a Brief Pictorial Card-Sorting Measure of Children's Emotional Forgiveness.

Friendships have important influences on children's well-being and future adjustment, and interpersonal forgiveness has been suggested as a crucial means for children to maintain friendships. However, existing measures of preadolescent children's forgiveness are restricted by developmental limitations to reporting emotional responses via questionnaire and inconsistent interpretations of the term “forgive.” This paper describes development and testing of concurrent and discriminant validity of a pictorial measure of children's emotional forgiveness, the Children's Forgiveness Card Set (CFCS). In Study 1, 148 Australian children aged 8–13 years (M = 10.54, SD = 1.35) responded to a hypothetical transgression in which apology was manipulated and completed the CFCS and extant measures of forgiveness and socially desirable responding. Following an exploratory factor analysis to clarify the structure of the CFCS, the CFCS correlated moderately with other forgiveness measures and did not correlate with socially desirable responding. Apology predicted CFCS responding among older children. In Study 2 an exploratory factor analysis broadly replicated the structure of the CFCS among a sample of N = 198 North American children aged 5–14 years (M = 9.39 years, SD = 1.67). We also fitted an exploratory bi-factor model to the Study 2 data which clarified which cards best measured general forgiveness, or positive or hostile aspects of responding to transgressions. Apology once again predicted the CFCS, this time regardless of age. The CFCS appears a potentially valid measure of children's emotional forgiveness. Potential applications and differences between explicit and latent forgiveness in children are discussed.

Adolescent Gender and Age Differences in Religiously and Spiritually Motivated Types of Forgiveness and the Relationship to Depressive Symptoms.

We examined three religiously/spiritually motivated forgiveness types, forgiveness of self, others, and divine forgiveness, and their association with depressive symptoms, across adolescent gender and age groups. Twelve- to 18-year-old patients arriving for primary care completed a 3-item Forgiveness measure and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Girls reported a higher tendency to forgive others compared to boys, and self-forgiveness and divine forgiveness tended to decline with age in both genders. We found no significant associations between forgiveness and depression among boys. Among girls, higher self-forgiveness was associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Forgiveness of others was associated with less depression only among 17-18-year-old girls. Divine forgiveness showed no association with depression in either gender. Forgiveness of self and others appears to be protective factors for depression among adolescent girls.

Measuring predictors of psychopathology in Italian adolescents: Forgiveness, avoidance and revenge

The 18-item Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory (TRIM-18) is a three-dimensional measure of contextual forgiveness widely used in contexts of psychopathology. The present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the TRIM-18 in Italian adolescents. In study 1 and 2 we examined the internal validity of the scale using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) in a sample of 724 students (females = 67.8%; Mage = 16.26, SD = 5.21), and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), in an independent sample of 802 students (females = 51.1%; mean age = 15.95, SD = 1.49). In study 3 we examined the convergent, discriminant, criterion and construct validity in a sample of 274 students (females = 59.1%; Mage = 14.32, SD = 2.73) with measures of forgiveness, positive and negative affect and psychopathology symptoms. EFA confirmed the three original factors, Avoidance, Revenge, and Benevolence and CFA supported the three-factorial structure of the scale. The average variance extracted values of the three TRIM-18 factors in study three provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The correlations between the TRIM-18 scales and the forgiveness measures ranged from strong to moderate, supporting its convergent validity. Similarly, the correlations with affect, and psychopathology measures in expected directions supported the construct validity of the TRIM-18 scales. Results showed strong composite reliability estimates in each sample for all three factors (>.84). The Italian adaptation of the TRIM-18 demonstrated good psychometric properties supporting its reliability and validity as a measure of three forgiveness facets including Avoidance, Revenge, and Benevolence, that are associated with psychopathology in adolescents.

Forgiveness and attribution: when abusive supervision enhances performance

PurposeWhile much research shows that abusive supervision reduces employee performance, the purpose of this study is to reverse the lens to question how and under what circumstances abusive supervision leads to enhanced employee performance. The authors argue that the linkages between abusive supervision and employee performance occurs via performance-promotion attributions and that employee levels of dispositional forgiveness alter the relationship between abusive supervision and employee interpretations of abuse, such that more forgiving individuals interpret abuse as more benign behavior designed to help them perform better (i.e. are performance promoting).Design/methodology/approachIn a three-wave field survey of 318 employees matched with 89 supervisors, employees completed measures of dispositional forgiveness (Time 1) abusive supervision (Time 1), and performance-promotion attributions of abusive supervision's motives (Time 2). Supervisors rated the job performance of their employees (Time 3). Multilevel structural equation modeling was employed to test a multilevel moderated mediation model.FindingsThe findings indicate abusive supervision predicts diminished employee performance only when employees are low in dispositional forgiveness, explained by lowered performance-promotion attributions for abusive supervision.Originality/valueThis study is the first to explore the mechanism (i.e. attribution of abusive supervision's motives to be performance-promoting) and the condition (i.e. employee's high forgiveness) under which abusive supervision may be performance enhancing. It extends the research of abusive supervision on employees' constructive reactions, as well as the effect of dispositional forgiveness on how it reframes employees' attributions of workplace mistreatment.

Forgiveness takes place on an attitudinal continuum from hostility to friendliness: Toward a closer union of forgiveness theory and measurement.

Researchers commonly conceptualize forgiveness as a rich complex of psychological changes involving attitudes, emotions, and behaviors. Psychometric work with the measures developed to capture this conceptual richness, however, often points to a simpler picture of the psychological dimensions in which forgiveness takes place. In an effort to better unite forgiveness theory and measurement, we evaluate several psychometric models for common measures of forgiveness. In doing so, we study people from the United States and Japan to understand forgiveness in both nonclose and close relationships. In addition, we assess the predictive utility of these models for several behavioral outcomes that traditionally have been linked to forgiveness motives. Finally, we use the methods of item response theory, which place person abilities and item responses on the same metric and, thus, help us draw psychological inferences from the ordering of item difficulties. Our results highlight models based on correlated factors models and bifactor (S-1) models. The bifactor (S-1) model evinced particular utility: Its general factor consistently predicts variation in relevant criterion measures, including 4 different experimental economic games (when played with a transgressor), and also suffuses a second self-report measure of forgiveness. Moreover, the general factor of the bifactor (S-1) model identifies a single psychological dimension that runs from hostility to friendliness while also pointing to other sources of variance that may be conceived of as method factors. Taken together, these results suggest that forgiveness can be usefully conceptualized as prosocial change along a single attitudinal continuum that ranges from hostility to friendliness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).