Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II: Theoretical elaboration and measurement

“Participants completed the 12-item Interpersonal Forgiveness Scale (McCullough et al., 1998), measuring avoidance and revenge motivations directed at the perpetrator of racial discrimination.”

“Some researchers see empathy as the key to forgiving [22, 67, 68] because empathic patients are more likely to recognize that unintended outcomes occur, that other circumstances may have contributed to the incident [69], that it is human to err and that they themselves may also have caused people harm [70].”

“Combining these findings with the positive relationship between rumination and negative affect (McCullough et al., 1998), rumination and negative affect expression should share a relationship as strong as the association between distributive communication and rumination.”

“This measure has been used successfully in numerous studies to assess feelings of connectedness with various entities (Aron et al., 1992; Fitzsimons & Kay, 2004; Mandel et al., 2006; McCullough et al. 1998 ).”

“Research on hurtful events (e.g., Bachman & Guerrero, 2006a) and forgiveness (McCullough et al., 1998) has combined scales measuring relational satisfaction and commitment to assess overall relationship quality.”

“Forgiveness, defined as a prosocial change toward the offender despite the offender’s hurtful actions (McCullough et al., 1998), is not only an essential aspect of well-functioning and lasting interpersonal relationships (e.”

“Empathy increases the likelihood that forgiveness will occur following an interpersonal offense (Fehr et al., 2010; McCullough et al., 1998), and learning compassion prompts empathy even during subsequent offense memories (Witvliet et al., 2015).”

“The Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory- 18 (TRIM-18; McCullough et al. 1998) measures avoidant, revengeful and forgiving motivations toward the offender after a transgression.”

“Forgiveness is one of positive characteristic that reduces motivation to seek revenge or to avoid the transgressor and increases compassion or sympathy (Mccullough et al., 1998).”

“…been shown that people who tend to ruminate past unhappiness or victimized experiences are less likely to forgive others (Brown & Phillips, 2005; McCullough et al., 1998; Paleari, Regalia, & Fincham, 2005) as well as more likely to become depressed (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000; Nolen-Hoeksema &…”

“McCullough et al. (1998) showed that rumination was related to decreased forgiveness and more retaliatory impulses toward an offender.”

“Forgiveness and Marital Stability Since Fenell (1993) found that forgiveness is integral to a longlasting marriage, forgiveness has received increasing attention from researchers because of its positive influence on marital quality and marital stability via the adaptive process by mending inevitable injuries and trans…”

“The Transgression–Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory (TRIM; McCullough et al., 1998) was used to evalu- ate reactions of participants in the negatively focused writing group to the interpersonal offense.”

“The Revenge subscale of the Transgression Related Interpersonal Motivation Scale (McCullough et al., 1998; Dutch version: Gerlsma, Lugtmeyer, van Denderen, & de Keijser, 2014) was used to measure situational revenge, the motivation to seek revenge, or to see harm come to the offender, following a…”

“Establishing goodwill toward a transgressor is likely to involve empathic processing, which has been established as a significant predictor of forgiveness in general (Exline et al., 2008; Exline & Zell, 2009; Karremans, Van Lange, & Holland, 2005; McCullough et al., 1998; McCullough et al., 1997).”

“Participants completed the 12-item TransgressionRelated Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) Inventory (McCullough et al., 1998).”

“One prosocial approach to resolving conflicts is the use of an apology (Anderson, Linden, & Habra, 2006; Darby & Schlenker, 1982; Lazare, 2004; McCullough et al., 1998; Ohbuchi, Kameda, & Agarie, 1989).”

“…and is associated with relationship satisfaction, commitment, inhibition of aggression, and trust for both the victim and the offender (McCullough et al., 1998; Merolla, Zhang, & Sun, 2012; Riek &Mania, 2012), it is important to explore why perfectionists have difficulty forgiving…”

“…victims’ evaluations of their transgressors, decrease victims’ aggression toward their transgressors, and increase victims’ empathy for and willingness to forgive their transgressors (Barkat, 2002; Eaton, 2006; Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010; McCullough et al., 1998; Ohbuchi, Kameda, & Agarie, 1989).”

“Although less researched by organizational scholars than revenge and withdrawal, reconciliation is the third most widely studied behavioral response to trust violations (e.g., Aquino et al., 2006; McCullough et al., 1998, 2007; Tomlinson et al., 2004; Tripp et al., 2007).”

“Research on forgiveness in psychology had a boom in the 1990s, driven in part by positive psychology, as it is considered a human strength that contributes to the overall wellbeing of the individual [28].”

“The retaliation desire and predictive avoidance items were adapted from the transgression-related interpersonal motivations inventory (McCullough et al., 1998).”

“This damage, however, is asymmetrical: victims tend to feel inferior in terms of their level of power (Foster & Rusbult, 1999), honor (Scheff, 1994), selfesteem (Scobie & Scobie, 1998), and perceived control (Baumeister, Stillwell, & Heatherton, 1994), and they may therefore experience feelings of victimization or ang…”

“Indeed, behavioral research on forgiveness has produced evidence that empathy toward the transgressor is an influential factor that promotes forgiveness in the wake of harm (McCullough et al., 1997, 1998, 2003; Worthington et al., 2000).”

“When people feel hurt or offended by their partner, forgiveness helps to restore positive feelings, cognitions, and motivations toward the offender (McCullough et al., 1998).”

“But because measurement of forgiveness has focused on its negative dimension (avoidance, retaliation, e.g., McCullough et al., 1998) most of what has been learned about forgiveness rests on inferences made from the absence of the negative (dysfunction).”

“Perhaps most importantly, apologies are one of the strongest predictors of interpersonal forgiveness, an outcome that has long been considered the ‘holy grail’ in conflict research (Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010; McCullough et al., 1998).”

“Support for these ideas comes from the research areas of forgiveness and angry rumination (e.g., Collins & Bell, 1997; McCullough et al., 1998; McCullough, Bellah, Kilpatrick, & Johnson, 2001).”

“Although the initial sanction effect exerted by core-circle social notifications may be weak due to the expectation of forgiveness (McCullough et al., 1998, Zeller 1998), the positive social sanction effect strengthens when core-circle contacts are repeatedly notified.”

“Regarding the person, we also measured their vengefulness , using five items of McCullough et al.’s (1998) Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) Inventory (see Appendix A), which loaded on a single factor with moderate-to-high loadings and high-to-excellent internal reliability at…”

“The Avoidance and Revenge subscales of the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory (TRIM; McCullough et al., 1998) were used to measure unforgiving motivations towards a specific offender (i.e., the subscale scores were added together).”

“…on initial coitus, research on other relationship phenomena (e.g., conflict and forgiveness) has indicated that individuals engage in some degree of reflective thought in an effort to make sense of, or understand, relationship experiences (Cloven & Roloff, 1991, 1993; McCullough et al., 1998).”

“…and motivations is argued to depend on the victim’s appraisal of the severity of the transgression and responsibility of the offender, the victim’s extent of rumination about the event, and his or her relationship to and feelings of empathy with the offender (e.g., McCullough et al., 1998).”

“Apologies have been found to lead to forgiveness (e.g., McCullough et al., 1997, 1998; Tabak, McCullough, Luna, Bono, & Berry, 2012; but see Struthers, Eaton, Santelli, Uchiyama, & Shirvani, 2008).”

“…approval from the university’s Institutional Review Board, and following the procedures utilized in previous relational transgression research (McCullough et al., 1998; Roloff et al., 2001), participants were provided with the following definition of a relational transgression: ‘‘When…”

“Apologies also have been found to create empathy for the offender (McCullough et al., 1997, 1998), which helps victims re-evaluate the offence, begin to see themselves as fallible, and in turn respond more positively to the offender (Exline, Worthington, Hill, & McCullough, 2003; Takaku, 2001).”

“At an interpersonal level, an intense apology restores customers’ self-esteem (Bramel, Taub, and Blum 1968; Walster, Berscheid, and Walster 1973), lowers customer aggressiveness (McCullough et al. 1998), and enhances perceptions of interactional justice (Colquitt 2001).”

“Alternatively, other factors may predict and mediate associations between mindfulness and post-rejection retribution seeking, such as trait anger (Spielberger, Jacobs, Russell, & Crane, 1983), rumination (McCullough et al., 1998) or impulsivity.”

“The offer of an apology consistently emerges as a predictor of forgiveness: this behavior reduces the negative effects of the transgression and thus facilitates forgiveness and increases the possibility of relational repair (Emmers and Canary, 1996; Kelley, 1998; McCullough et al., 1998; Hodgins and Liebeskind, 2003;…”

“First, prior familiarity and a relationship of commitment with the transgressor increase the likelihood of forgiveness [17].”

“Such a message implies that the victim does not intend to take revenge or avoid the perpetrator, two common responses by victims following transgressions (McCullough et al., 1998).”

“Vengeance is one of two main motivational factors that govern forgiveness (the other being avoidance) and is closely related to poor relationship well-being (McCullough et al., 1998).”

“(2002) Quality of life Quality of Life Inventory Frisch (1994) Religion and spirituality Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire Plante and Boccaccini (1997) Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale Hatch, Burg, Naberhaus, and Hellmich (1998) Spiritual Transcendence Scale Piedmont (1999) Satisfaction Brie…”

“People deal with challenges in their interactions in many different ways other than relationship dissolution (Drigotas & Rusbult, 1992; McCullough et al., 1998; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005).”

“The Transgression Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory (McCullough et al., 1998), a measure of state forgiveness, may be useful for future directions.”

“…forgiveness is communicated, a feature of the interpersonal aspect of forgiveness is that it involves positive responses to transgressors, variously conceptualized as benevolent (McCullough et al., 1998), altruistic (Enright, Freedman, & Rique, 1998), compassionate, and loving (Worthington, 2001).”

“Consequently, people are often left with the misfortune of coping with the fall out of distressing relationship experiences, like interpersonal offenses, and two ways that theorists have proposed that people deal with such experiences is through vengeance and avoidance ( McCullough et al. 1998; McCullough et al. 1997).”

“Prior research demonstrates that individuals engage in the counterproductive psychological process of rumination when they are victims of relational transgressions, which include insults (e.g., McCullough, Bellah, Kilpatrick, & Johnson, 2001; McCullough, Bono, & Root, 2007; McCullough et al., 1998).”

“Forgiveness was measured using the TransgressionRelated Interpersonal Motivations Inventory-12 (TRIM-12, McCullough et al. 1998), which assesses the tendency, or motivation of the respondent to avoid and to seek revenge towards a transgressor.”

“For example, Ohbuchi et al. (1989) found that following an apology subjects report a more favorable overall impression of the offender, more positive affect toward the offender, and demonstrate less aggression (see McCullough et al. (1998) , and Baron (1990) for similar results).”

“Für diese Überlegung spricht, dass der Effekt einer Entschuldigung auf die Bereitschaft zu Verzeihen durch Empathie vermittelt wird (McCullough et al., 1997, 1998).”

“Instead, participants immediately responded to the TRIM (McCullough et al., 1998, 2003) (benevolence: a ¼ .91; avoidance: a ¼ .94; revenge: a ¼ .87), plus a single-item measure of forgiveness (“I forgive him/her”) (1 ¼ strongly disagree; 5 ¼ strongly agree).”

“The level of motivation to seek revenge against and avoid a specific offender was measured using the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory (TRIM; McCullough et al., 1998).”