Running head : DECISIONAL AND EMOTIONAL FORGIVENESS

Decisional forgiveness is a behavioral intention to act less negatively and more positively toward an offender. Emotional forgiveness is a process in which positive otheroriented emotions replace unforgiving emotions. We present five studies, involving N=832 participants, to (a) develop the Decisional Forgiveness Scale (DFS) and Emotional Forgiveness Scale (EFS; Studies 1 & 2), and (b) assess initial evidence for the construct and discriminant validity of the DFS and EFS (Studies 3, 4 & 5). The DFS and EFS are distinct but related psychometrically sound measures of two forms of forgiveness, which are potentially important when people have decided to forgive an offender but still feel negative emotions associated with anger, resentment, and bitterness toward the offender. The distinction between decisional and emotional forgiveness is expected to advance forgiveness research, especially in studying the processes associated with forgiving. (137 words)