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; Enri...

A meta–analysis was conducted with 53 articles reporting 70 studies that addressed gender and forgiveness. The mean d was .28 indicating that females are more forgiving than males. Potential methodological moderators were examined: (a) type of sample, (b) target of forgiveness, (c) trait, state, or familial/marital forgiveness, (d) actual versus hypothetical transgressions, (e) measurement moda...

Experimental evidence suggests that when people are transgressed against interpersonally, they often react by experiencing unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is conceptualized as a stress reaction. Forgiveness is one (of many) ways people reduce unforgiveness. Forgiveness is conceptualized as an emotional juxtaposition of positive emotions (i.e., empathy, sympathy, compassion, or love) against the ne...

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 i...

Forgiveness is a variable closely related to religiousness and spirituality that has been hypothesized to be protective of mental and physical health. However, we do not clearly understand which aspects of forgiveness are most clearly associated with health outcomes, and the conditions under which these relationships occur. This study used national probability data to systematically examine age...

This article reviews published methods for promoting forgiveness for a broad range of clinical issues. The review revealed a consensus among applied researchers regarding several broad types of interventions to promote forgiveness, namely, (a) defining forgiveness, (b) helping clients remember the hurt, (c) building empathy in clients for the perpetrator, (d) helping clients acknowledge their o...

To examine potential causal relations between forgiveness and marital quality a sample of married couples (N1⁄4 91) provided data regarding forgiveness and marital quality on two occasions separated by a 12-month interval. Structural equation modeling was used to examine direction of effects. For women, paths emerged from forgiveness to marital quality and vice versa. For men, the direction of ...

The present research tested 2 competing models specifying how 2 traits (concern with the well-being of others and self-control) interact to predict forgiveness. According to the compensatory model, forgiveness requires being high on either trait; according to the synergistic model, forgiveness requires being high on both traits. Two preliminary studies demonstrated the main effect of trait (Stu...

Much research has shown that women are more empathic than men. Yet, women and men are equally forgiving. However, it is not clear whether empathy is more important to forgiveness for men or for women. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in levels of empathy and forgiveness and the extent to which the association of empathy and forgiveness differed by gender. Parti...

Retrospective accounts of transgression and forgiveness situations in ongoing friendships and dating relationships were coded based on Kelley’s (1998) three forms of forgiveness granting (direct, indirect, and conditional). Across the sample, indirect forgiveness was reported most frequently, followed by direct and conditional forgiveness. Forgivenessgranting tendencies varied by relationship t...