Writing about the Benefits of an Interpersonal Transgression Facilitates Forgiveness

The authors examined the effects of writing about the benefits of an interpersonal transgression on forgiveness. Participants (N = 304) were randomly assigned to one of three 20-min writing tasks in which they wrote about either (a) traumatic features of the most recent interpersonal transgression t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of consulting and clinical psychology Vol. 74; no. 5; pp. 887 - 897
Main Authors McCullough, Michael E, Root, Lindsey M, Cohen, Adam D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Psychological Association 01.10.2006
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Altruism
Attitude
Cognitive Processes
Counseling Effectiveness
Counseling Techniques
Emotional Response
Essays
Female
Guilt
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Interpersonal Relationship
Intervention
Male
Middle Aged
Motivation
Psychological Patterns
Social Facilitation
Surveys and Questionnaires
Writing
Writing (Composition)
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Summary:The authors examined the effects of writing about the benefits of an interpersonal transgression on forgiveness. Participants (N = 304) were randomly assigned to one of three 20-min writing tasks in which they wrote about either (a) traumatic features of the most recent interpersonal transgression they had suffered, (b) personal benefits resulting from the transgression, or (c) a control topic that was unrelated to the transgression. Participants in the benefit-finding condition became more forgiving toward their transgressors than did those in the other 2 conditions, who did not differ from each other. In part, the benefit-finding condition appeared to facilitate forgiveness by encouraging participants to engage in cognitive processing as they wrote their essays. Results suggest that benefit finding may be a unique and useful addition to efforts to help people forgive interpersonal transgressions through structured interventions. The Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory-18-Item Version (TRIM-18) is appended.
ISSN:0022-006X
DOI:10.1037/0022-006X.74.5.887