Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Forgiveness; Forgiveness--Religious aspects--Christianity; Identity (Psychology)--Religious aspects--Christianity; Image of God; Academic theses;

Abstract

Interpersonal forgiveness has become a major topic among researchers, but little attention has been paid to Hunter's (1978) conceptualization of pseudo forgiveness. In the present study, the relationship between personality and religious beliefs on the willingness of people to forgive others was examined. The tendency to engage in self-monitoring behaviors, the conception of the character of God, and the degree to which one identified as a Christian were studied in the context of one's willingness to grant authentic forgiveness. A distinction was made between people who offered authentic forgiveness versus those who merely pseudo forgave. Authentic forgiveness involves releasing the entitlement for retribution; whereas, pseudo-forgiveness typically is a means to accomplish personal or social goals. Analyses of responses from 134 Christian college students indicated that low self-monitoring, positive images of God, and higher Christian identity were each positively related to authentic forgiveness. The effects of self-monitoring and religion appeared additive rather than interactive. The clinical and pastoral implications of the findings are discussed.

Year of Submission

2006

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Melvin E. Gonnerman Jr

Second Advisor

Beverly Kopper

Third Advisor

Seth Brown

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2006

Object Description

1 PDF file (66 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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