Gratitude is conceptualized as a moral affect that is analogous to other moral emotions such as empathy and guilt. Gratitude has 3 functions that can be conceptualized as morally relevant: (a) a moral barometer function (i.e., it is a response to the perception that one has been the beneficiary of another person's moral actions); (b) a moral motive function (i.e., it motivates the grateful person to behave prosocially toward the benefactor and other people); and (c) a moral reinforcer function (i.e., when expressed, it encourages benefactors to behave morally in the future). The personality and social factors that are associated with gratitude are also consistent with a conceptualization of gratitude as an affect that is relevant to people's cognitions and behaviors in the moral domain.

Is gratitude a moral affect

Six studies regarding forgiveness are presented. The Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS), a self-report measure of dispositional forgiveness (with subscales to assess forgiveness of self, others, and situations) was developed and demonstrated good psychometric properties. Forgiveness correlated positively with cognitive flexibility, positive affect, and distraction; it correlated negatively with rumination, vengeance, and hostility. Forgiveness predicted four components of psychological well-being (anger, anxiety, depression, and satisfaction with life); forgiveness of situations accounted for unique variance in these components of psychological well-being. Forgiveness and hostility demonstrated equivalent, inverse associations with relationship duration, and forgiveness accounted for unique variance in relationship satisfaction, even when controlling for trust. Forgiveness level correlated positively with decreased negativity in statements written about transgressions in the present versus the past tense.

Dispositional forgiveness of self, others, and situations.

This article explores the effects of time and relationship strength on the evolution of customer revenge and avoidance in online public complaining contexts. First, the authors examine whether online complainers hold a grudge—in terms of revenge and avoidance desires—over time. They find that time affects the two desires differently: Although revenge decreases over time, avoidance increases over time, indicating that customers indeed hold a grudge. Second, the authors examine the moderation effect of a strong relationship on how customers hold this grudge. They find that firms' best customers have the longest unfavorable reactions (i.e., a longitudinal love-becomes-hate effect). Specifically, over time, the revenge of strong-relationship customers decreases more slowly and their avoidance increases more rapidly than that of weak-relationship customers. Third, the authors explore a solution to attenuate this damaging effect—namely, the firm offering an apology and compensation after the online com...

When Customer Love Turns into Lasting Hate:The Effects of Relationship Strength and Time on Customer Revenge and Avoidance

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 negative emotions of unforgiveness. Forgiveness can thus be used as an emotion-focused coping strategy to reduce a stressful reaction to a transgression. Direct empirical research suggests that forgiveness is related to health outcomes and to mediating physiological processes in such a way as to support the conceptualization that forgiveness is an emotion-focused coping strategy. Indirect mechanisms might also affect the forgiveness-health relationship. Namely, forgiveness might affect health by working through social support, relationship quality, and religion.

Forgiveness is an emotion-focused coping strategy that can reduce health risks and promote health resilience: theory, review, and hypotheses

This work complements existing research regarding the forgiveness process by highlighting the role of commitment in motivating forgiveness. On the basis of an interdependence–theoretic analysis, the authors suggest that (a) victims’ self-oriented reactions to betrayal are antithetical to forgiveness, favoring impulses such as grudge and vengeance, and (b) forgiveness rests on prorelationship motivation, one cause of which is strong commitment. A priming experiment, a cross-sectional survey study, and an interaction record study revealed evidence of associations (or causal effects) of commitment with forgiveness. The commitment–forgiveness association appearred to rest on intent to persist rather than long-term orientation or psychological attachment. In addition, the commitment–forgiveness association was mediated by cognitive interpretations of betrayal incidents; evidence for mediation by emotional reactions was inconsistent. Although close partners often treat one another in a positive and considerate manner, negative interactions are nearly inevitable. Such interactions result from a variety of causes, including incompatible preferences, external sources of stress, and extrarelationship temptation. We suggest that the violation of a relationshiprelevant norm— or betrayal of one’s partner— constitutes one of the more serious threats to a relationship, and we propose that the resolution of betrayal incidents is not easy. Indeed, forgiveness of betrayal arguably is one of the more difficult tasks in an ongoing relationship. The film The War of the Rosesdarkly and humorously illustrates the complexities of betrayal and forgiveness: The marriage of Oliver and Barbara Rose is marked by repeated betrayal. Oliver belittles Barbara’s career as a chef. Barbara fails to support Oliver during a frightening health crisis. Each humiliates the other, delivering impossible-to-forget attacks on the other’s tastes and habits. Cumulatively, such incidents reduce their once-loving marriage to a sequence of vicious, increasingly deadly battles. During their marital Armageddon, the two find themselves entangled in a chandelier suspended above a hallway. The mechanism supporting the chandelier gives way, and— embraced in the arms of the chandelier—the two crash to the unyielding terazzo floor 30 feet below. With his dying breath, Oliver reaches out to touch Barbara’s shoulder, offering amends and seeking forgiveness. Barbara’s hand slowly rises to meet Oliver’s (perhaps, one imagines, to reciprocate Oliver’s act), and with her dying breath, Barbara flings Oliver’s hand away from her. Again, forgiveness of betrayal arguably is one of the more difficult tasks in an ongoing relationship.

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Dealing with betrayal in close relationships: does commitment promote forgiveness?

Interpersonal forgiving was conceptualized in the context of a 2-factor motivational system that governs people's responses to interpersonal offenses Four studies were conducted to examine the extent to which forgiving could be predicted with relationship-level variables such as satisfaction, commitment, and closeness; offense-level variables such as apology and impact of the offense; and social-cognitive variables such as offunder-focused empathy and rumination about the offense Also described is the development of the transgression-related interpersonal motivations inventory--a self-report measure designed to assess the 2-component motivational system (Avoidance and Revenge) posited to underlie forgiving The measure demonstrated a variety of desirable psychometric properties, commending its use for future research As predicted, empathy, apology, rumination, and several indexes of relationship closeness were associated with self-reported forgiving

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Papers

Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships: II. Theoretical Elaboration and Measurement