Thesis (S.T.D.) -- Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, 2001. / At head of title: Pontificia universitas Urbaniana, Facultas S. theologiae. Includes bibliographical references (p. [115]-125).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-101).

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Forgiveness intervention research has previously been conducted mostly with participants from Western cultural settings. The application of forgiveness in education has also been limited, especially forgiveness as a psychosocial or a moral education programme in a school setting. Further, few studies have included cultural values in forgiveness intervention programmes. To address this research gap, the current study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of two forgiveness education programmes as class guidance programmes with Hong Kong Chinese youth; one programme adopted an Enright process-based model, and the other was based on Chinese Confucian values. The participants included boys (n=114) and girls (n=168) aged 16-18 from two schools. To examine the programmes’ effectiveness, a quasi-experimental design including both pre-test and post-test was adopted, with two experimental groups (i.e., Enright group and Chinese-value group) and one control group. A qualitative approach, using focus-group and individual interviews, was also utilized for triangulation and further examination of participants’ perceptions of the process of forgiveness and the effects of the forgiveness programmes. The findings revealed that both programmes had positive effects on the participants’ forgiveness attitudes, as measured by the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI), the Decisional Forgiveness Scale (DFS), the Emotional Forgiveness Scale (EFS), and Forgiveness Self-Efficacy (FSE). Such effects were more prominent in the Enright group than in the Chinese-value group, with improvement in three specific areas: affect and behaviour towards offenders, decisional and emotional forgiveness, and forgiveness self-efficacy. Further analysis revealed that these significant effects were found mainly in participants who indicated that they had been unable to forgive prior to the intervention. These “Unforgiving” participants in the Enright group outperformed their counterparts in forgiveness attitudes, specifically in reduction of negative emotion against offenders. The quantitative findings did not show significant effects among either the Enright or Chinese-value group, whether in concepts and ranking of importance of forgiveness as value, or in self-esteem, hope and anger. However, the qualitative findings did reveal that both groups saw impacts on participants’ control of emotion, inner peace, and understanding of forgiveness concepts (according to Enright’s conceptualization or to Chinese cultural values). The Enright programme tended to contribute to participants’ handling of their emotions whereas the Chinese-value programme strengthened participants’ knowledge of forgiveness as a core social virtue. The nature of the offence, the offender’s attitude and the offended’s pride were perceived as factors influencing their forgiveness decision, whereas empathy, perspective-taking and reflection were effective strategies in the forgiveness process. Overall, the forgiveness programme based on the Enright process model was found to be exceptionally strong in cultivating forgiveness attitudes and emotional readiness to forgive, whereas the Chinese-value programme cultivated the cognitive understanding of forgiveness as a value. The implications of these findings in light of the application of forgiveness, both as a process-based psychosocial educational programme and as a moral education programme, are discussed. Three further implications are also noted: developing forgiveness education in school guidance; forgiveness as a psychological construct for positive youth development; and forgiveness as a character education programme. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In Forgiveness and Responsibility, I investigate the nature and norms of moral forgiveness. The standard account of forgiveness claims that forgiving is (or at least requires) the overcoming of resentment. I argue, however, that there is no single way to forgive and so no non-trivial set of necessary and sufficient conditions for forgiveness. I identify the prototypical manifestation of forgiveness, using it to explain the diversity of our forgiveness practices. Prototypical manifestations of forgiveness are cases of directed forgiveness, in which one takes up a certain kind of forgiving attitude towards a wrongdoer and overtly manifests that attitude, most notably by a speech act. This speech act crucially involves the victim relinquishing certain of her rights to blame the wrongdoer, as well as releasing the wrongdoer from certain kinds of personal obligations to the victim. Other modes of forgiveness are understood as extensions of the prototype to the extent that they share either the interior, psychological features or the exterior, behavioral features of directed forgiveness. I conclude by arguing that in order to preserve certain intuitive views about the norms bearing on forgiveness, our best theories of forgiveness should hold that: (1) forgiving is prototypically under one's voluntary control; (2) wrongdoers cannot obligate their victims to forgive them; and (3) forgiving alters the norms of interaction between victim and wrongdoer.

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether women who have been victimized can have a decrease in their negative affect by being exposed to the suggestion of one of two dimensions of forgiveness. The study also examined the moderating effect of several personality variables on participants reactions to the intervention. Seventy-nine women were given several personality and affect questionnaires before and after they listened to instructions for either granting forgiveness (interpersonal), letting go of their negative affect (intrapsychic), or relaxation (control). Results indicated that focusing on granting forgiveness was associated with more negative affect than the other two interventions. Main effects and moderating effects were found for certain personality characteristics such as self esteem and self efficacy. These findings provide conflicting support for the use of forgiveness therapy with victimized women by suggesting that some benefits may be gained, but personality characteristics should be considered before beginning this type of therapy.

Problems occur in nearly all marriages at one time or another. Even individuals in healthy marriages have suffered from some form of relationship offenses by their spouses. The literature has examined many facets of marital satisfaction and marital stability. Because of the numerous studies associating marital dissatisfaction with marital dissolution, the focus of the literature on marital problems has typically been on distressed couples. This study’s focus is on problems experienced by married participants who are not currently reporting thoughts of ending their marriages. It examined factors that contribute to maintaining satisfaction in marriages that are not considered distressed, but in which there has been some offense committed. Specifically, it examined the role of trust and forgiveness as predictors of marital satisfaction in married participants. Participants were asked to complete a series of measures that included the Trim-18 (which is a common instrument in the forgiveness literature to measure levels of forgiveness following specific relationship offenses), the Dissipation Rumination scale, the Trust Scale, and the Relationship Assessment Scale. As done in previous forgiveness research, participants were asked to recall and list offenses committed by their spouses. They then rated the amount of pain experienced by the most bothersome offense on a scale from 1-10. All measures were regressed on the Relationship Assessment Scale. Results of analyses indicated that trust, forgiveness, and amount of pain did significantly predict relationship satisfaction. Specifically, avoidance (from the forgiveness measure) and faith (from the trust measure) seemed to explain the most variance in the model. Forgiveness explained slightly more variance than trust or pain, but all significantly contributed. Trait forgiveness, as measured by the Dissipation Rumination scale did not contribute to the overall model. The most notable finding of the current study was that forgiveness served as a mediator between trust and relationship satisfaction. Listed offenses were categorized into either an unfaithfulness category or other category. Of the 153 participants, 10 participants listed spouse unfaithfulness as the offense. No differences were found between type of offense and relationship satisfaction, however participants who reported unfaithfulness did differ significantly on the amount of pain reported. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

In this study the focus is on the pastoral guidance of the emotionally traumatized person. From the exegetic study it became clear that suffering forms part of every person's life and growth. In Ecclesiastes 7: 1-14 it is stressed that not only is prosperity given by God but that God also allows suffering. There with Romans 8: 18-25 stresses that which awaits the true believer in eternal life. It is given as motivation to persevere through the here and now of suffering. The Epistle of James (5:13-16) emphasizes in particular the communion of believers as a source of support. Psalm 13 encourages the believer to call upon God in his distress because God listens to his children's cries of distress. In the chapter dealing with Theological Basis Theory it became clear that emotional trauma normally happens where the person's own outlook on life was darkened by something that happened to him, which he was not prepared for. A pastoral approach to therapy is consequently based on the viewpoint that God is the Great Healer. In the process of pastoral counseling, attention must also be paid to any pending processes of mourning. Where the whole process of consultation eventually results in an attitude of servant hood in the counselee, it has truly been successful. It further became evident that various aids may creatively be used in process of guiding the counselee to wholeness -one of the most prominent of these is prayer that has to be continuously interwoven with the different counseling sessions. As far as the Meta-theory is concerned, the focus has been on contributions made by disciplines outside theology. It was pointed out that emotions, inter alia, can also become "sick" on occasion. This happens where a person does not allow himself to live through specific experiences of his emotions. A person, however, has control over the value he attaches to on emotion. Each person is unique and consequently the experiencing of his or her emotions will differ from person to person. Under normal circumstances a person experiencing intense emotions will allow them to flow freely from the body. Where this does not happen, such a person must receive professional help from somebody that can guide him towards healing. As part of the Meta-theoretical Section, there has also been focused empirically on the emotional trauma of a number of co-workers. It has been found, inter-alia that emotional pain that has not been dealt with, often leads to emotional trauma. It is also possible that emotional trauma may be disguised at times and may manifest itself by way of certain symptoms. Empirical research has again confirmed the important fact that the emotionally traumatized person must be guided to identify the deeper roots of the problem in order to activate the healing process. In the Practice-theoretical Section a number of practical guidelines stemming from the basic-theoretical and meta-theoretical perspectives have been formulated for the pastoral guidance of the emotionally traumatized person to emotional and spiritual healing. The importance of prayer as part of the pastoral therapeutically process again proved to be very prominent. / Thesis (M.A. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This study deals with the importance of the steps of grief and forgiveness in the recovery of the emotionally wounded person. The basis theoretical research clearly showed that God is the source of healing and forgiveness. The most important words for forgiveness in the Old Testament is salach, nasa and kaphar while aphiemi, apoluo and charizoma are the most important words for forgiveness in the New Testament. A special focus was consequently placed on these different words and the one overwhelming fact that repeatedly came to the fore was that, if a person has been granted forgiveness by God, he should also forgive his transgressor. The meta-theoretical research has clearly shown that both grief and forgiveness consist of a process that has to be worked through. Losses may be experienced as a result of traumatic events and when these losses affect a person negatively, they must be grieved over. Usually before a person has not completed his grief work, he can not move on to forgiving his offender. For the purpose of the empirical study, five cases of people who experienced trauma were selected and studied. The study highlighted the importance of considering the unique personal history of each individual, especially with reference to unresolved traumatic experiences in this person's past. From each of these case studies the importance of forgiveness came strong to the fore as a determining factor regarding the healing process of the emotionally wounded person. In the practical theoretical section a pastoral model is presented within which the different phases of the process of grief, as well as the process of forgiveness, are very prominent. The six phases of grief are I) shock and denial, 2) anger, 3) depression, 4) bargaining and wishful thinking, 5) sorrow, 6) forgiveness, resolution and acceptance. The process of forgiveness consists of three phases and nine steps. Phase one is the preparation for forgiveness and consists of the following four steps: 1) Forgiveness must be understood. 2) Recognize that forgiveness is necessary. 3) Identify the emotions involved. 4) Confront the hate. Phase two is really the core of forgiveness and consists of the following three steps: 5) bearing the pain, 6) setting boundaries to protect oneself, 7) releasing those who have wronged us. Phase three is oriented toward the possibility of starting over and consists of the following two steps: 8) assuming responsibility, 9) longing for reconciliation. This is a model that can affectively be applied in the pastoral guidance of persons who are struggling with unresolved grief, and consequently are not able to forgive. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Research (Miller, Worthington, & McDaniel, 2008) has shown that women have higher levels of dispositional forgiveness than men. Studies (Exline & Zell, 2009; Toussaint & Webb, 2005) have also discovered that empathy predicts dispositional forgiveness differently in men compared to women. It is unclear why these sex differences exist. Therefore, four models were constructed, analyzed, and compared using structural equation modeling in order to determine whether gender role orientation moderates the relationship between empathy and dispositional forgiveness. Self-report data were collected from 502 undergraduate university students at a mid-sized, Midwestern, public university in the United States. The models examined did not fit the data well; possibly caused by the interaction between empathy and femininity within each model. However, significant findings emerged. Results showed that angry rumination negatively predicted dispositional forgiveness. Concerning gender role orientations, results showed that femininity positively predicted dispositional forgiveness, while masculinity did not significantly predict dispositional forgiveness. Contrary to expectations, empathy negatively predicted dispositional forgiveness. However, additional analyses clarified that empathy actually positively predicted dispositional forgiveness; a finding that was likely distorted by multicollinearity in the main models examined. Results revealed that femininity significantly moderated the empathy-dispositional forgiveness relationship. In this study, masculinity did not significantly moderate the relationship between empathy and dispositional forgiveness. This work concludes with a discussion of results in the context of McCullough’s theory of forgiveness (McCullough et al., 1998) and Gilligan’s (1994) theory of moral reasoning. Additionally, issues affecting the measurement of constructs and implications for research and practice are discussed. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services