Forgiveness

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


FORGIVENESS AND FUNDAMENTALISM: RECONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORRECTIONAL ATTITUDES AND RELIGION,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 3 2000
BRANDON K. APPLEGATE
Although research typically has failed to establish a relationship between religious affiliation and correctional attitudes, recent assessments have revealed that fundamentalist Christians tend to be more punitive than are nonfundamentalists. These studies have advanced our understanding considerably, but their conceptualization of religion and correctional attitudes has been limited. Using a statewide survey, the present study demonstrates that compassionate as well as fundamentalist aspects of religious beliefs are related to public correctional preferences. Further, our results reveal that religion influences support for rehabilitation as well as punitiveness. These findings suggest the need for scholars to think more broadly about the role of religion in criminology. [source]


Reconciliation and Forgiveness in an Unjust Society

DIALOG, Issue 4 2002
Ambrose Moyo
Justification by faith necessarily leads to justice in society. IN post,apartheid South Africa, reconciliation has required truth telling plus confession and, most importantly, land redistribution. Failure at land redistribution in Zimbabwe has reduced the effectiveness of the post,colonial reconciliation program and perpetuated previous injustice. [source]


Kings, Poets, and the Power of Forgiveness, 1642,1660

ENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE, Issue 1 2003
ANDREW SHIFFLETT
First page of article [source]


Forgiveness in Marriage: Current Status and Future Directions

FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2006
Frank D. Fincham
Abstract: Interest in forgiveness has exploded in recent years as researchers and clinicians have begun to recognize its value for maintaining emotional well-being, physical health, and healthy intimate relationships. Forgiveness appears to be especially important in the marital relationship. This article offers an overview of forgiveness in marriage including a review of major research and clinical efforts in this area. A number of recommendations are offered for practitioners and future research directions are outlined. Marital forgiveness is seen as an exciting area for future exploration and one that is ripe with possibility. [source]


Baptism and the Soteriology of Forgiveness

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2000
George Hunsinger
This article examines the relation of Christian baptism to the saving work of God in Christ. In critical conversation with the later work of Barth, the article argues that baptism, as visible word, both attests and mediates divine forgiveness. Consequently, baptism with water and baptism with the Holy Spirit are not to be bifurcated from each other. Believer's baptism is the norm, although infant baptism is not excluded. Baptism exemplifies the koinonia of divine and human action without falling into synergism, and without appealing to inappropriate notions of causality. [source]


Reducing Road Rage: An Application of the Dissonance-Attribution Model of Interpersonal Forgiveness,

JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 10 2006
Seiji Takaku
Recent research (Takaku, 2001; Takaku, Weiner, & Ohbuchi, 2001) tested and supported the hypothesis that injured parties' motivation to forgive their wrongdoers could be enhanced through inducing hypocrisy-dissonance by making the injured parties aware of their own past wrongdoing. The present study tested and supported the model's applicability to people's road-rage experiences by showing that individuals who were aware of their own past reckless driving generated more hypocrisy-induced dissonance, more positive attributions, and less negative emotional reactions than individuals who were not aware of their own past reckless driving. Implications for future research and possible applications of the model in reducing road rage are discussed. [source]


Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy and the Facilitation of Forgiveness

JOURNAL OF MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 1 2010
Leslie Greenberg
The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an emotion-focused couple therapy intervention for resolving emotional injuries. Twenty couples acting as their own waitlist controls were offered a 10,12-session treatment to help resolve unresolved anger and hurt from a betrayal, an abandonment, or an identity insult that they had been unable to resolve for at least 2 years. Treated couples fared significantly better on all outcome measures over the treatment period compared to the waitlist period. They showed a significant improvement in dyadic satisfaction, trust, and forgiveness as well as improvement on symptom and target complaint measures. Changes were maintained on all of the measures at 3-month follow-up except trust, on which the injured partners deteriorated. At the end of treatment, 11 couples were identified as having completely forgiven their partners and six had made progress toward forgiveness compared with only three having made progress toward forgiveness over the waitlist period. The results suggest that EFT is effective in alleviating marital distress and promoting forgiveness in a brief period of time but that additional sessions may be needed to enhance enduring change. [source]


Forgiveness, the Moral Law and Education: A Reply to Patricia White

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2002
L. Philip Barnes
Patricia White has recently attempted to construct an ethically valid notion of forgiveness that will serve educational purposes and contribute to the moral development of pupils in schools. She distinguishes between a strict view that requires repentance before forgiveness, which she rejects, and a relaxed view that does not require repentance, which she endorses. In this reply I defend the strict view of forgiveness against her criticism and challenge the ethical propriety of the relaxed view. I shall argue that her support for the relaxed view both runs counter to our deepest moral intuitions and serves to undermine the moral law and moral endeavour. [source]


A Just Measure of Forgiveness: Reforming Occupational Licensing Regulations for Ex-Offenders Using BFOQ Analysis

LAW & POLICY, Issue 1 2008
KAROL LUCKEN
In the United States, over 600,000 offenders rejoin society annually, though little has been done to facilitate their transition from the prison to the community. Offender reentry into the workplace has emerged as a particular concern, given that many statutes prohibit public employment for ex-offenders and create obstacles to private-sector employment through occupational licensing requirements. These mandates may explicitly reject ex-offenders, or require "good moral character" or job/relationship tests that all but eliminate meaningful employment options. Several states are reconsidering the implications of these prohibitions, but a clear framework for assessing the validity of exclusionary occupational mandates is often lacking. This article proposes that the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) defense found in employment discrimination law provides a helpful framework for guiding these reform efforts. [source]


8.,The Grounding of Forgiveness: Martha Nussbaum on Compassion and Mercy

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Article first published online: 18 FEB 200, Paul Gallagher
Violence came to define the twentieth century. We live in fear that an even more extreme violence will characterize the twenty-first century. The city of Hiroshima was the victim of the greatest single stroke of violence in the history of humanity. Yet it managed to arise, Phoenix-like, as a city devoted to peace in the aftermath of nuclear horror. How was this extraordinary forgiveness possible? Is it possible that it was born out of a compassion for the victims of nuclear holocaust that extended beyond its immediate borders? In several works, but most notably in Upheavals of Thought, Martha Nussbaum has analyzed the conditions for the occurrence of compassion. She has also subjected her largely Aristotelian analysis of compassion to a Stoic-inspired critique. This paper will reconstruct Nussbaum's analysis, critique, and defense of compassion. I will then extend Nussbaum's analysis to argue how a forgiveness rooted in compassion, rather than mercy, might be possible. The city of Hiroshima's dedication to worldwide peace in the aftermath of nuclear horror is used to illustrate a compassion-based forgiveness. [source]


Forgiveness in Marriage: Implications for Psychological Aggression and Constructive Communication

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 3 2002
Frank D. Fincham
Two studies examined whether forgiveness in married couples predicted partner reports of psychological aggression and constructive communication. Study 1 found that forgiveness of hypothetical acts of psychological aggression predicted partner reports of psychological aggression. Study 2 examined actual transgressions and found two underlying dimensions of forgiveness (positive and negative). The negative dimension predicted partner reports of psychological aggression, and, for husbands, the positive dimension predicted partner reports of constructive communication. All findings were independent of both spouses' marital satisfaction. The implications for understanding marital interaction and future research on forgiveness are discussed. [source]


Forgiveness in marriage: The role of relationship quality, attributions, and empathy

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 1 2002
Frank D. Fincham
Italian husbands (n= 79) and wives (n= 92) from long-term marriages provided data on the role of marital quality, affective reactions, and attributions for hypothetical partner transgressions in promoting forgiveness. Structural equation modeling revealed that, as hypothesized, positive marital quality was predictive of more benign attributions that, in turn, facilitated forgiveness both directly and indirectly via affective reactions and emotional empathy. Unexpectedly, marital quality did not account for unique variance in forgiveness. Compared to husbands, wives' responsibility attributions were more predictive of forgiveness, whereas empathy was a better predictor of forgiveness in husbands than in wives. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the burgeoning therapeutic literature on forgiveness. [source]


The kiss of the porcupines: From attributing responsibility to forgiving

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 1 2000
FRANK D. FINCHAM
How to maintain relatedness in the context of being harmed by others, especially an intimate partner, is a fundamental human challenge. Forgiveness provides a way of meeting this challenge as it removes the barrier to relatedness caused by a transgression. But scientists know very little about forgiveness and its role in close relationships. This article therefore offers a conceptual analysis of forgiveness. The analysis then serves as the foundation for an organizational framework that can be used to study forgiveness in close relationships. Finally, preliminary data are presented that speak to some of the issues introduced in the article. [source]


Why forgiveness may protect against depression: Hopelessness as an explanatory mechanism

PERSONALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2008
Loren L. Toussaint
This study examined associations between multiple dimensions of forgiveness with hopelessness and depression. Further, this study investigated the extent to which hopelessness mediated associations between forgiveness and depression. We used an adapted model and drew on beginning work showing associations between forgiveness, hope/hopelessness and depression. We predicted that forgiveness would be significantly inversely correlated with hopelessness and depression, and that hopelessness would mediate the associations between forgiveness and depression. We controlled for religiousness/spirituality and demographic factors in our analyses, and used data from a nationally representative probability sample of 1,423 adults, ages 18 years and older. Results showed that forgiveness of oneself and others was negatively correlated, and seeking forgiveness was positively correlated with depression. Forgiveness of oneself and others was associated with hopelessness. Mediation analyses revealed that hopelessness partially mediated the associations between forgiveness of oneself and others with depression. The present findings provide support for theoretical and conceptual work connecting forgiveness, hope and mental health, and add to a scant empirical literature on these topics. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Articulating an Uncompromising Forgiveness

PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2001
PAMELA HIERONYMI
I first pose a challenge which, it seems to me, any philosophical account of forgiveness must meet: the account must be articulate and it must allow for forgiveness that is uncompromising. I then examine an account of forgiveness (proposed by David Novitz in the June 1998 issue of this journal) which appears to meet this challenge. Upon closer examination we discover that this account actually fails to meet the challenge,but it fails in very instructive ways. the account takes two missteps which seem to be taken by almost everyone discussing forgiveness. At the end, I sketch an alternative account of forgiveness, one that I think meets the challenge and avoids the missteps. [source]


Wiping the Slate Clean: The Heart of Forgiveness

PHILOSOPHY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2008
LUCY ALLAIS
First page of article [source]


Group Threat, Collective Angst, and Ingroup Forgiveness for the War in Iraq

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Michael J. A. Wohl
We examine the consequences of threat to the ingroup for emotional reactions to ingroup harm doing. It was hypothesized that reminders of a past threat to the ingroup would induce collective angst, and this emotional reaction would increase forgiveness of the ingroup for its harmful actions toward another group. In Experiment 1, Americans read an article about the war in Iraq that implied Americans would soon experience another attack or one where such implied future threat to the ingroup was absent. When the ingroup's future was threatened, forgiveness for the harm Americans have committed in Iraq was increased, to the extent that collective angst was induced. In Experiment 2, Americans experienced more collective angst and were more willing to forgive their ingroup for their group's present harm doing in Iraq following reminders of either the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, or the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor compared to when the victimization reminder was irrelevant to the ingroup. We discuss why ingroup threat encourages ingroup forgiveness for current harm doing. [source]


Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School , By John L. Ruth

RELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 4 2007
Martin William Mittelstadt
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Punishment and Forgiveness in Israel's Migratory Campaign , By Won W. Lee

RELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2007
Tyler Mayfield
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


IMAGES OF GOD AND PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: DOES A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH A LOVING GOD MATTER?,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 4 2006
JAMES D. UNNEVER
This study argues that the nature and intensity of a person's relationship with God creates a transposable cognitive schema that shapes people's views toward public policies such as executing convicted murderers. In this context, we investigate whether Americans who report having a close personal relationship with a loving God are less likely to support the death penalty. We hypothesize that such a relationship tempers the tendency to see punitiveness as an appropriate response to human failings. Individuals who hold a loving God image are more likely to believe that God responds to those who have "failed" or "sinned" by demonstrating unconditional love, forgiveness, and mercy. Accordingly, support for capital punishment is problematic because it contradicts the image of a merciful, forgiving deity; God's purpose,and admonition to believers,is to demonstrate compassion toward those who have trespassed against others. We test these possibilities using the 2004 General Social Survey (GSS). Controlling for a range of religious factors and other known predictors of death penalty attitudes, the results show that Americans with a personal relationship with a loving God are less likely to support capital punishment for convicted murderers. [source]


Debt-Relief Effectiveness and Institution-Building

DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2009
Andrea F. Presbitero
This article provides new evidence on the effects of recent debt-relief programmes on different macroeconomic indicators in developing countries, focusing on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). The relationship between debt relief and institutional change is also investigated to assess whether donors are moving towards ex-post governance conditionality. Results show that debt relief is only weakly associated with subsequent improvements in economic performance but is correlated with increasing domestic debt which undermines the positive achievements in reducing external debt service. There is also evidence that donors are moving towards a more sensible allocation of debt forgiveness, rewarding countries which have better policies and institutions. [source]


Personality, self-esteem, and self-construal as correlates of forgivingness

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 1 2004
Félix Neto
The relationship between forgivingness (enduring resentment, sensitivity to circumstances, and overall propensity to forgive) and a number of personality dimensions relevant to forgivingness was examined. These dimensions were self-esteem, shyness and embarrassment, on one hand, and self-construal and perceived loneliness, on the other hand. The main relationships between forgivingness and personality concerned the interpersonal dimensions of personality: shyness, embarrassment, independence from others, and interdependence with others. However, the intra-personal, strictly self-referential concomitants of these dimensions (self-esteem and loneliness) were not much linked to forgivingness. Furthermore, each personality factor had a distinct link with forgivingness: independence made the resentment still more enduring, shyness and social embarrassment exacerbated the sensitivity to circumstances, and interdependence increased the willingness to forgive. These findings throw light on the double aspect of forgiveness as intra- and inter-individual and on the relative independence of these aspects. The observed pattern of relationships varied notably (and significantly) as a function of the participants' genders. It could be therefore important, in future studies, to compute systematically correlation coefficients or assess main effects separately for women and men. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


How acts of forgiveness restore a sense of justice: Addressing status/power and value concerns raised by transgressions

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
Michael Wenzel
Commonly it is understood that forgiveness means sacrificing justice. However, the present study shows that the act of forgiving can increase a sense of justice, which in turn facilitates benevolent sentiments towards the offender. University students (N,=,88) imagined themselves as victims and, after the offender either did or did not offer an apology, they either were or were not instructed to express their forgiveness to the offender (via an email). Results showed that, irrespective of apology, the expression of forgiveness led to a greater sense of justice in victims, mediated via feelings of status/power and the perception of a value consensus with the offender. The feeling of justice further mediated the effects of the forgiveness expression in terms of reducing hostile emotions, revenge motivation and retributive attitudes, as well as increasing the willingness to reconcile with the offender. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Forgiveness in Marriage: Current Status and Future Directions

FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2006
Frank D. Fincham
Abstract: Interest in forgiveness has exploded in recent years as researchers and clinicians have begun to recognize its value for maintaining emotional well-being, physical health, and healthy intimate relationships. Forgiveness appears to be especially important in the marital relationship. This article offers an overview of forgiveness in marriage including a review of major research and clinical efforts in this area. A number of recommendations are offered for practitioners and future research directions are outlined. Marital forgiveness is seen as an exciting area for future exploration and one that is ripe with possibility. [source]


Baptism and the Soteriology of Forgiveness

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2000
George Hunsinger
This article examines the relation of Christian baptism to the saving work of God in Christ. In critical conversation with the later work of Barth, the article argues that baptism, as visible word, both attests and mediates divine forgiveness. Consequently, baptism with water and baptism with the Holy Spirit are not to be bifurcated from each other. Believer's baptism is the norm, although infant baptism is not excluded. Baptism exemplifies the koinonia of divine and human action without falling into synergism, and without appealing to inappropriate notions of causality. [source]


The cognitive nature of forgiveness: Using cognitive strategies of primary appraisal and coping to describe the process of forgiving

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2007
John Maltby
The present study investigated forgiveness in a traditional cognitive model of stress appraisal and coping and in a more recent model that includes the construct of low control stressors. One-hundred sixty six men and 168 women completed measures of forgiveness, primary stress appraisals, and coping strategies. For men, forgiveness was found to be positively associated with the use of challenge appraisals, and negatively associated with the use of loss appraisals and emotion-focused coping. For women, forgiveness was found to be positively associated with emotion-focused coping and acceptance, and negatively associated with avoidance. The results for women indicate that when forgiveness situations are conceptualized as low-control stressors, we are able to explain the relationships between forgiveness, appraisal, and coping. The results for men are broadly in line with a more traditional model of coping, which does not consider the construct of low control. Crucial differences in the ways that men and women appraise and cope with situations involving forgiveness are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol. [source]


Treating couples recovering from infidelity: An integrative approach

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 11 2005
Kristina Coop Gordon
Infidelity is one of the most difficult problems to address in couple therapy, most likely because it involves a traumatic relationship event that alters the ways in which couples process information about each other and established behavioral patterns. We present a three-stage treatment designed to address the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional sequelae of affairs that integrates cognitive-behavioral and insight-oriented strategies with the literatures on traumatic response and forgiveness. A case study with pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up data is presented to illustrate the treatment methods. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol/In Session 61: 1393,1405, 2005. [source]


The reduction of psychological aggression across varied interpersonal contexts through repentance and forgiveness

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 3 2006
Judy Eaton
Abstract Research on the resolution of interpersonal conflict has shown that forgiveness is important in reducing aggression and promoting prosocial interactions following a transgression. Although the benefits of forgiveness have been demonstrated in a variety of relationship contexts, a single theoretical model has not been tested across these different contexts. In this study, we employed an attributional framework to examine the relationship between attributions of responsibility for a transgression, repentance, emotions, forgiveness, and psychological aggression toward three different categories of transgressor: a coworker, a friend, and a romantic partner. One hundred and seven participants were asked to describe a recent transgression with a coworker, a friend, and a romantic partner. In each case, responsibility for the event, the degree to which the transgressor apologized, anger, sympathy, forgiveness, and subsequent psychological aggression toward the transgressor were measured. A basic model of aggression reduction, whereby repentance facilitates forgiveness and reduces psychological aggression, was reliable in each category of transgressor. A comparison of the models showed minor differences in how individuals respond to transgressors. Although coworkers apologized less, they were just as likely to be forgiven as romantic partners and friends. In addition, participants were least likely to respond with psychological aggression when a friend transgressed against them. This research provides a theoretical framework within which to study forgiveness and aggression across a variety of contexts. Aggr. Behav. 32:1,12, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Australian consumers' attitudes toward France a decade after nuclear testing: evidence of forgiveness

JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2009
Louise A. Heslop
Surveys of Australian consumers before, during, and after French nuclear testing in the Pacific in 1995 show clear evidence of negative reaction of consumers to the testing with regards to their ratings of France and French products. Although beliefs about French products did not decline following the announcement of the planned testing, evaluative feelings, and behavioral orientation towards France, the French and French products did. However, by 2005 behavioral orientation to French products, as well as attitudes to France and the French had more than recovered. The components of attitudes to products and country-people are examined in the context of theories of forgiveness to understand processes that could explain such a recovery. Implications for researchers and marketers in the increasingly frequent situations of international tensions are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Of Memes and Marriage: Toward a Positive Relationship Science

JOURNAL OF FAMILY THEORY & REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
Frank D. Fincham
Marital and family research has tended to focus on distressed relationships. Reasons for this focus are documented before keys to establishing a positive relationship science are outlined. Increased study of positive affect is needed to better understand relationships, and the best way to accomplish this goal is to embrace the construct of "relationship flourishing." The behavioral approach system and the behavioral inhibition system are described and their potential role in understanding positive relationship processes is described using, as examples, commitment and forgiveness. A link to positive psychology is made, and it is proposed that the study of positive relationships constitutes the fourth pillar of this subdiscipline. Finally, the potential for focus on positive relationship processes to integrate multiple literatures is noted. [source]