Forgiveness of self and others and emotional empathy.

ALTHOUGH THERE IS STILL CONSIDERABLE DEBATE about definitions of forgiveness (Worthington, 1998), some commonality regarding the psychological constituents of the process of forgiveness is emerging from intervention models designed to promote forgiveness. All of those models focus on the victim’s development of empathy toward the perpetrator as a necessary step in forgiveness (Doyle, 1999; Enright & the Human Development Study Group, 1996; Gartner, 1988; Hunter, 1978; McCullough & Worthington, 1995; McCullough, Worthington, & Rachal, 1997; Worthington, 1998). According to all models, individuals with higher levels of trait empathy find it easier to work toward forgiveness than do those with lower levels, and individuals incapable of empathy find it very difficult to forgive. Two arguments merit further consideration. First, there has been no empirical examination, outside clinical samples, with standardized measuresof the relationship between forgiveness and empathy (Worthington, 1998). Second, because of the lack of a consensual definition of forgiveness, consideration of correlates