Previous research has established how childhood attachment extends into adult romantic attachment and attachment to God. Other research has shown that individuals' styles of attachment to God are differentially associated with three types of spiritual coping methods, self-directing, deferring, and collaborative. Hernandez, Salerno, & Bottoms (2010) sought to extend this body of research by investigating the relationship between God attachment, spiritual coping, and alcohol use. A "novel link" was established between God attachment and alcohol use (p. 106). Research on spiritual coping methods has identified three spiritual coping styles associated with people's relational state with God: self-directing, a self-reliant coping and problem-solving style that works independently of God; deferring, where the responsibility of problem-solving rests on God alone; and collaborative, a problem-solving style that views God and person as cooperative partners in coping and problem-solving. Moreover, a person's God attachment has been differentially associated with these coping methods. Hernandez, Salerno, & Bottoms (2010) sought to extend research on attachment and coping by being the first to study "the effects of God attachment and spiritual coping on alcohol use" (p. 99). They hypothesized that spiritual coping styles would mediate the effect of God attachment on alcohol use. Specifically, they predicted that insecure God attachment style, compared to secure God attachment style, would use "collaborative and deferring style coping styles less and self-directing coping style more," which would then result in increased alcohol use (p. 100). For the study, 429 undergraduate Introductory Psychology students from the University of Illinois at Chicago participated for course credit. The sample's (60% female) religious orientation was 46% Catholic, 43% Christian, 6% Hindu, 3% Muslim, 2% Jewish, 0.4% Greek Orthodox, and 0.4% Sikh. Five measures were utilized to test their hypotheses. The Attachment to God Scale was used to measure participants' "perceived emotional attachment to God" (p. 101). The Religious Problem-Solving Scale was used to measure participants' "religious problem solving tendencies," broken down into three spiritual coping styles: self-directing, deferring, and collaborative (p. 101). The Alcohol-Related Coping Scale was used to measure participants' "social, coping, and enhancement motives for drinking alcohol" (p. 101). The Alcohol Frequency Scale was used to measure participants' general alcohol use. Finally, participants' religious characteristics, such as religious orientation and level of religious involvement, were measured. To test the data, the researchers first implemented a series of one-way between-subjects ANOVA with God attachment style as the independent variable and spiritual coping styles, alcohol-related coping, and general alcohol use as dependent variables. This was followed by mediation analyses to test if the "effect of God attachment on alcohol use and alcohol coping was mediated by spiritual coping styles" (p. 102). Related to spiritual coping, there was a significant main effect of God attachment on spiritual coping, F(2,226) = 26.88, p

International Journal for the Psychology of Religion

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. Participants were 127 community residents who completed self-report measures of empathy and forgiveness. The present results showed that women were more empathic than men, but no gender difference for forgiveness was apparent. However, the association between empathy and forgiveness did differ by gender. Empathy was associated with forgiveness in men—but not in women.

Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Empathy and Forgiveness

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 modalities (i.e., questionnaire, experiment, or survey), (f) type of forgiveness measure, (g) published or not published, (h) validated measures versus non–validated measures, and (i) culture. No methodological variables moderated the relationship between gender and forgiveness. However, there were larger gender differences on vengeance than any other forgiveness–related measure. Other potential moderators were suggested as possibly influencing the gender difference including functional differences processing forgiveness, differences in dispositional qualities, and situational cues.

http://www.people.vcu.edu/~mamcdani/Publications/Miller,%20Worthington%20&%20McDaniel%20(2008).pdf

Gender and forgiveness: a meta-analytic review and research agenda

Forgiveness and gratitude are positive psychological characteristics that are connected to well-being. This study examined these connections in an understudied population of psychotherapy outpatients and examined the extent to which affect and beliefs mediated these relationships. Participants were 72 outpatients who completed a battery of assessments as part of a standard intake protocol. Results showed that forgiveness and gratitude were both positively and strongly associated with well-being and largely, though not completely, mediated by affect and belief. Forgiveness and gratitude may have an important place in the positive psychologist’s repertoire of well-being enhancing techniques and exercises in general, and may be particularly powerful with a clinical psychotherapy population.

Forgiveness, Gratitude, and Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Affect and Beliefs

Despite substantial advances in other areas of forgiveness research, empirical evaluation of a fundamental aspect of forgiveness, the process itself, has been virtually nonexistent. This article reviews the existing literature and concludes that although numerous process models have been proposed, many lack a coherent theoretical grounding, and few have been empirically validated. Importantly, understanding of the forgiveness process is hindered by a lack of consensus on what forgiveness is, and consequently what constitutes the endpoint of the process. In response to the many shortcomings in the literature, salient issues for future research are identified. The stress and coping model (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) is proposed as a framework for guiding theorizing and research.

A review of forgiveness process models and a coping framework to guide future research

The present study was aimed at examining the link between satisfaction with life and forgivingness using a dispositional measurement for forgiveness. The participants were 810 adolescent and adults living in France, and 192 college students living in Portugal. They were presented with the Forgivingness questionnaire (Mullet, E., J. Barros, L. Frongia, V. Usai and F. Neto: 2003, Journal of Personality 71, pp. 1–19), and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, E., R.J. Emmons, R.J. Larsen and S. Griffin: 1985, Journal of Personality Assessment 49, pp. 71–75). The link between satisfaction with life and all three components of forgivingness (enduring resentment, sensitivity to circumstances, and overall willingness to forgive) was weak, and most of the time non-significant. This result is consistent with previous findings showing that (a) forgiving an offense to an offender does not result in a strong increase in overall satisfaction, and (b) strictly self-referential traits (e.g., self-esteem and loneliness) are typically not linked with forgivingness. Possible reasons why forgivingness and satisfaction with life are not linked are discussed.

Forgivingness and Satisfaction with Life

The propensity to forgive a severe offense is studied in a sample of 48 people from three religious communities in Lebanon: Catholics, Maronites, and Orthodox. The effects of a number of circumstances: intent to harm, cancellation of consequences, religious and social proximity to the offender and apologies from the offender, on the propensity to forgive, and the variation of these effects as a function of age, gender, and educational level, were considered. The method was an application of Norman Anderson's functional theory of cognition. Twenty-four stories were constructed by varying systematically the levels of each of the four factors quoted above. Participants were asked to rate in each case their propensity to forgive on a forgiveness scale. The more important results concern: (a) the overall level of propensity to forgive, which was higher than expected, (b) the impact of the religious proximity factor, which was very slight, and (c) the effect of the apologies factor, which was extremely important.

The Propensity to Forgive: Findings from Lebanon

This study first examined the factorial structure of the responses of Congolese participants to a willingness-to-forgive questionnaire already used on European samples. The same two factors, revenge and circumstances, were found. The second aim was to examine the overall level of willingness to forgive expressed by Congolese as compared to that found in European samples. The hypothesis that the Congolese are less willing to seek revenge than the Europeans was supported by the data. The third aim was to study possible Congo-Europe differences in the way education, religious practice, and other characteristics are related to revenge and circumstances. On overall propensity to forgive, Congolese men and women did not differ as much as did European men and women, and Congolese people attending and nonattending church did not differ as much as did European people attending and nonattending church. Forgiveness may be more characteristic of collectivistic cultures than of individualistic cultures.

Forgivingness A Congo-France Comparison

The present study investigates the cross-cultural differences in conceptualizations of forgiveness, using a modified version of the Conceptualizations of Forgiveness Scale. In the Congolese (collectivistic) culture, forgiveness was expected to be mainly conceived as an “interpersonal” construct, and in the French (individualistic) culture as an “intrapersonal” process. The findings supported these views. The Congolese more than the French conceived forgiveness as aimed at reconciling with the offender and extensible to people outside the offended—offender dyad.

Conceptualizations of Forgiveness Collectivist-Congolese Versus Individualist-French Viewpoints

This study examined the many possible motives to convert to Islam among French adolescents and adults. The theoretical framework used was the reversal theory (Apter, 2001). Eight motive factors were evidenced. Five of these factors were related to motif experiences already suggested by Lofland and Skonovd (1981): intellectual (telic), experimental (autic mastery), affectional (autic sympathy), coercive (conformist), and revivalist (paratelic). Three motives were relatively new ones: negativist (opposing my family), alloic mastery (fighting on the poor's side), and alloic sympathy (sharing possessions). Overall, the motives for converting to Islam were mainly very personal and active ones. Societal, passive motives were not found to predominate.

Geneviève Vinsonneau

Papers

Forgivingness and Satisfaction with Life

The Propensity to Forgive: Findings from Lebanon

Forgivingness A Congo-France Comparison

Conceptualizations of Forgiveness Collectivist-Congolese Versus Individualist-French Viewpoints

Conversion to Islam Among French Adolescents and Adults: A Systematic Inventory of Motives