Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships
01 Aug 1997-Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (American Psychological Association)-Vol. 73, Iss: 2, pp 321-336
TL;DR: Evidence is found consistent with the hypotheses that the relationship between receiving an apology from and forgiving one's offender is a function of increased empathy for the offender and that forgiving is uniquely related to conciliatory behavior and avoidance behavior toward the offending partner.
Abstract: Forgiving is a motivational transformation that inclines people to inhibit relationship-destructive responses and to behave constructively toward someone who has behaved destructively toward them. The authors describe a model of forgiveness based on the hypothesis that people forgive others to the extent that they experience empathy for them. Two studies investigated the empathy model of forgiveness. In Study 1, the authors developed measures of empathy and forgiveness. The authors found evidence consistent with the hypotheses that (a) the relationship between receiving an apology from and forgiving one's offender is a function of increased empathy for the offender and (b) that forgiving is uniquely related to conciliatory behavior and avoidance behavior toward the offending partner. In Study 2, the authors conducted an intervention in which empathy was manipulated to examine the empathy-forgiving relationship more closely. Results generally supported the conceptualization of forgiving as a motivational phenomenon and the empathy-forgiving link.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: This paper explored potential predictors of unforgiveness and forgiveness for a specific offense in 91 undergraduates and found that positive feelings of forgiveness were uniquely predicted by dispositional forgivingness and by the participants' deliberate attempt to forgive the offense.
Abstract: Almost everyone is unforgiving at times. Many people seek to deal with the revenge and avoidance of unforgiveness by forgiving. The authors explore potential predictors of unforgiveness and forgiveness for a specific offense in 91 undergraduates. Positive feelings of forgiveness were uniquely predicted by dispositional forgivingness and by the participants' deliberate attempt to forgive the offense. Different patterns of predictors suggest that unforgiveness and forgiveness are not necessarily reciprocally related. This implies that interventions might be developed to reduce unforgiveness without attempting to promote forgiveness. This may be crucial in situations where forgiveness is not desirable.
185 citations
TL;DR: The participants in the recall-self-as-transgressor condition were significantly more likely than those in the control condition to make benevolent attributions, experience benevolent emotional reactions, and forgive the transgressor.
Abstract: The author investigated (a) the effects of a victim's perspective taking and a transgressor's apology on interpersonal forgiveness and (b) forgiveness as a mode of dissonance reduction. Before the participants read a scenario describing a situation in which they imagined being mistreated by a classmate, the author randomly assigned them to 1 of 4 perspective-taking conditions: (a) recalling times when they had mistreated or hurt others (i.e., the recall-self-as-transgressor condition); (b) imagining how they would think, feel, and behave if they were the classmate (i.e., the imagine-self condition); (c) imagining how the classmate would think, feel, and behave (i.e., the imagine-other condition); or (d) imagining the situation from their own (i.e., the victim's/control) perspective. After reading the scenario, the participants read an apology from the classmate. The participants in the recall-self-as-transgressor condition were significantly more likely than those in the control condition to (a) make benevolent attributions, (b) experience benevolent emotional reactions, and (c) forgive the transgressor. The relationship between the perspective-taking manipulation and forgiveness was mediated by the benevolent attributions and positive emotional reactions experienced by the victims.
185 citations
Cites background from "Interpersonal forgiving in close re..."
...Investigators of the relationship between apology and forgiveness have suggested that apology becomes more effective in bringing about forgiveness when the victims experience empathy by taking the perspective of the transgressors (McCullough et al., 1998; McCullough et al., 1997)....
[...]
...Although past researchers (e.g., McCullough, et al., 1998; McCullough et al., 1997) have relied mainly on Batson’s empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson, Sager, et al....
[...]
TL;DR: Forgiveness and gratitude represent positive psychological responses to interpersonal harms and benefits that individuals have experienced as mentioned in this paper, and have been shown to be related to various measures of physical and psychological well-being.
Abstract: Forgiveness and gratitude represent positive psychological responses to interpersonal harms and benefits that individuals have experienced. In the present article we first provide a brief review of the research that has shown forgiveness and gratitude to be related to various measures of physical and psychological well-being. We then review the empirical findings regarding the cognitive and affective substrates of forgiveness and gratitude. We also offer a selective review of some of the interventions that appear to be effective in encouraging forgiveness and gratitude. To conclude, we suggest some ways in which the insights from the basic research on promoting forgiveness and gratitude might be meaningfully integrated into cognitive psychotherapy. Keywords: forgiveness; gratitude; well-being; cognitive psychotherapy; interpersonal Recently psychologists have reached a consensus that research has seriously neglected the strengths of human behavior (Fredrickson, 1998; McCullough & Snyder, 2000; Myers & Diener, 1995; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Taylor, 2001 ). They argue that, instead of articulating the positive experiences that improve quality of life, many theories in psychology have focused mainly on curbing aggression, reducing psychopathologies, and controlling vices. Positive psychology is a response to this perceived oversight. An area in which positive psychology might be applied successfully to cognitive psychotherapy is in the area of people's responses to other people's treatment of them. How should people respond when they are treated particularly well-or particularly poorly by others? Theorists of cognitive psychotherapy have had much to say about people's maladaptive responses to such interpersonal behavior (e.g., anger), but have had surprisingly little to say about positive responses to such behavior. In this domain, positive psychology may have much to offer: By helping people to respond more positively when others harm them and to better savor the interpersonal situations in which others are benevolent toward them, people may be able to gain resources for psychological well-being that would go untapped otherwise. The major reasons for the current success of cognitive psychotherapy are that: (a) identification and modification of specific cognitive processes associated with desired therapeutic outcomes have helped produce effective treatments; (b) such treatments have been consistently replicated by cognitive therapists; and (c) such treatments have yielded effects that are not only beneficial but appealing to clients who are increasingly seeking rational ways of directly improving their lives (Leahy, 2002). In this spirit, gratitude and forgiveness may also be useful additions to the armamentarium of cognitive psychotherapists. We now have a clear picture of the basic mechanisms underlying both phenomena, the reasons they are beneficial for people, practical applications for facilitating them, and we also know that the practice of forgiveness and gratitude are tools that clients can employ beyond the treatment context to directly improve their lives. Forgiveness is a positive psychological response to interpersonal harm, and gratitude is a positive psychological response to interpersonal benefits. Despite the fact that forgiveness and gratitude have been viewed as perennial human concerns in many ancient theories of the good life (Emmons & McCullough, 2003b; McCullough & Worthington, 1999), psychologists have only recently begun to explore the applications of forgiveness and gratitude to the promotion of human welfare. The present article addresses these two areas of research in positive psychology. Specifically, we first review the empirical research on forgiveness, including research on its links to health and well-being, basic research on cognitive and affective factors that encourage or deter forgiveness, and research on the effectiveness of forgiveness interventions. …
184 citations
Cites background or methods from "Interpersonal forgiving in close re..."
...McCullough, Worthington, and Rachal (1997) conceptualized forgiveness as a suite of transgression-related motivational changes toward a transgressor....
[...]
...One study employing wait-list control methods showed that experiments can reliably produce such benefits (McCullough et al., 1997), while two others showed that the benefits can even last anywhere from 3 months up to 1 year later (Coyle & Enright, 1997; Freedman & Enright, 1997)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the tendency to forgive in romantic relationships and the extent to which the tendency of a person to forgive predicts the severity of an actual transgression in a romantic relationship.
Abstract: Given the positive benefits associated with interpersonal forgiveness, the current investigation examined the tendency to forgive in romantic relationships. Two studies tested the hypothesis that the tendency to forgive mediates the association between attachment models of self and other and relationship satisfaction in dating (n ¼ 184) and marital relationships (n ¼ 96). In addition, the extent to which the tendency to forgive predicts forgiveness of an actual transgression was examined among married couples. The tendency to forgive partially mediated the relation between model of other (relationship partner) and satisfaction for those in dating relationships and for husbands. For those in marital relationships, the tendency to forgive partially mediated the relation between model of self and satisfaction. In addition, for wives, endorsing a greater tendency to forgive was related to forgiveness of an actual transgression, regardless of the severity of that transgression. For husbands, endorsing a greater tendency to forgive was related to forgiveness of an actual transgression, but only for more severe transgressions. Results are discussed in terms of who is more likely to forgive and the role that the tendency to forgive plays in romantic relationships.
179 citations
Cites background from "Interpersonal forgiving in close re..."
...partners when they have committed transgressions (McCullough et al., 1997)....
[...]
...…(willing to inhibit impulses to act destructively and instead act constructively toward relationship partners when they have transgressed, Rusbult, Verette, Whitney, Slovik, & Lipkus, 1991) may be more likely to forgive partners when they have committed transgressions (McCullough et al., 1997)....
[...]
...In addition, several studies show that people forgive to the extent that they experience empathy toward the transgressor (e.g., McCullough et al., 1997; McCullough et al., 1998; Fincham et al., 2002)....
[...]
...For example, McCullough, Worthington, and Rachal (1997) define forgiveness as ‘‘a set of motivational changes, whereby one becomes decreasingly motivated to retaliate against and maintain estrangement from an offending relationship partner and increasingly motivated by conciliation and goodwill for…...
[...]
...Given that forgiveness is believed to encompass both a decrease in revenge and avoidance toward the transgressor as well as an increase in forgiveness toward the transgressor (McCullough et al., 1997) and because a principle components factor analysis did not support an underlying three-dimensional structure for the scale, responses to the items from the three dimensions were summed to form an overall forgiveness score....
[...]
TL;DR: Together, these data suggest that people's mindsets powerfully affect whether they exert effort to empathize when it is needed most, and these data may represent a point of leverage in increasing empathic behaviors on a broad scale.
Abstract: Empathy is often thought to occur automatically. Yet, empathy frequently breaks down when it is difficult or distressing to relate to people in need, suggesting that empathy is often not felt reflexively. Indeed, the United States as a whole is said to be displaying an empathy deficit. When and why does empathy break down, and what predicts whether people will exert effort to experience empathy in challenging contexts? Across 7 studies, we found that people who held a malleable mindset about empathy (believing empathy can be developed) expended greater empathic effort in challenging contexts than did people who held a fixed theory (believing empathy cannot be developed). Specifically, a malleable theory of empathy--whether measured or experimentally induced--promoted (a) more self-reported effort to feel empathy when it is challenging (Study 1); (b) more empathically effortful responses to a person with conflicting views on personally important sociopolitical issues (Studies 2-4); (c) more time spent listening to the emotional personal story of a racial outgroup member (Study 5); and (d) greater willingness to help cancer patients in effortful, face-to-face ways (Study 6). Study 7 revealed a possible reason for this greater empathic effort in challenging contexts: a stronger interest in improving one's empathy. Together, these data suggest that people's mindsets powerfully affect whether they exert effort to empathize when it is needed most, and these data may represent a point of leverage in increasing empathic behaviors on a broad scale.
179 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: Two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) are developed and are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period.
Abstract: In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented.
34,482 citations
TL;DR: A new coefficient is proposed to summarize the relative reduction in the noncentrality parameters of two nested models and two estimators of the coefficient yield new normed (CFI) and nonnormed (FI) fit indexes.
Abstract: Normed and nonnormed fit indexes are frequently used as adjuncts to chi-square statistics for evaluating the fit of a structural model A drawback of existing indexes is that they estimate no known population parameters A new coefficient is proposed to summarize the relative reduction in the noncentrality parameters of two nested models Two estimators of the coefficient yield new normed (CFI) and nonnormed (FI) fit indexes CFI avoids the underestimation of fit often noted in small samples for Bentler and Bonett's (1980) normed fit index (NFI) FI is a linear function of Bentler and Bonett's non-normed fit index (NNFI) that avoids the extreme underestimation and overestimation often found in NNFI Asymptotically, CFI, FI, NFI, and a new index developed by Bollen are equivalent measures of comparative fit, whereas NNFI measures relative fit by comparing noncentrality per degree of freedom All of the indexes are generalized to permit use of Wald and Lagrange multiplier statistics An example illustrates the behavior of these indexes under conditions of correct specification and misspecification The new fit indexes perform very well at all sample sizes
21,588 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1958TL;DR: The psychology of interpersonal relations as mentioned in this paper, The psychology in interpersonal relations, The Psychology of interpersonal relationships, کتابخانه دیجیتال و فن اطلاعات دانشگاه امام صادق(ع)
Abstract: The psychology of interpersonal relations , The psychology of interpersonal relations , کتابخانه دیجیتال و فن آوری اطلاعات دانشگاه امام صادق(ع)
15,254 citations
Additional excerpts
...Social psychologists have also addressed interpersonal forgiving from time to time (Darby & Schlenker, 1982; Gahagan & Tedeschi, 1968; Heider, 1958; Horai, Lindskold, Gahagan, & Tedeschi, 1969; Weiner, Graham, Peter, & Zmuidinas, 1991)....
[...]
TL;DR: A scale of current subjective distress, related to a specific event, was based on a list of items composed of commonly reported experiences of intrusion and avoidance, and responses indicated that the scale had a useful degree of significance and homogeneity.
Abstract: Clinical, field, and experimental studies of response to potentially stressful life events give concordant findings: there is a general human tendency to undergo episodes of intrusive thinking and periods of avoidance. A scale of current subjective distress, related to a specific event, was based on a list of items composed of commonly reported experiences of intrusion and avoidance. Responses of 66 persons admitted to an outpatient clinic for the treatment of stress response syndromes indicated that the scale had a useful degree of significance and homogeneity. Empirical clusters supported the concept of subscores for intrusions and avoidance responses.
7,692 citations
TL;DR: The Dyadic Adjustment Scale as discussed by the authors is a measure for assessing the quality of marriage and other similar dyads, which is designed for use with either married or unmarried cohabiting couples.
Abstract: This study reports on the development of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, a new measure for assessing the quality of marriage and other similar dyads. The 32-item scale is designed for use with either married or unmarried cohabiting couples. Despite widespread criticisms of the concept of adjustment, the study proceeds from the pragmatic position that a new measure, which is theoretically grounded, relevant, valid, and highly reliable, is necessary since marital and dyadic adjustment continue to be researched. This factor analytic study tests a conceptual definition set forth in eariler work and suggests the existence of four empirically verified components of dyadic adjustment which can be used as subscales [dyadic satisfaction, dyadic cohesion, dyadic consensus and affectional expression]. Evidence is presented suggesting content, criterion-related, and construct validity. High scale reliability is reported. The possibility of item weighting is considered and endorsed as a potential measurement technique, but it not adopted for the present Dyadic Adjustment Scale. It is concluded that the Dyadic Adjustment Scale represents a significant improvement over other measures of marital adjustment, but a number of troublesome methodological issues remain for future research.
6,899 citations