TY - JOUR
T1 - Forgiveness takes place on an attitudinal continuum from hostility to friendliness
T2 - Toward a closer union of forgiveness theory and measurement
AU - Forster, Daniel E.
AU - Billingsley, Joseph
AU - Russell, V. Michelle
AU - McCauley, Thomas G.
AU - Smith, Adam
AU - Burnette, Jeni L.
AU - Ohtsubo, Yohsuke
AU - Schug, Joanna
AU - Lieberman, Debra
AU - McCullough, Michael E.
N1 - Funding Information:
Research was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Award 29165) to Michael E. McCullough and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Summer Program (Award 17036) to Thomas G. McCauley.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Researchers commonly conceptualize forgiveness as a rich complex of psychological changes involving attitudes, emotions, and behaviors. Psychometric work with the measures developed to capture this conceptual richness, however, often points to a simpler picture of the psychological dimensions in which forgiveness takes place. In an effort to better unite forgiveness theory and measurement, we evaluate several psychometric models for common measures of forgiveness. In doing so, we study people from the United States and Japan to understand forgiveness in both nonclose and close relationships. In addition, we assess the predictive utility of these models for several behavioral outcomes that traditionally have been linked to forgiveness motives. Finally, we use the methods of item response theory, which place person abilities and item responses on the same metric and, thus, help us draw psychological inferences from the ordering of item difficulties. Our results highlight models based on correlated factors models and bifactor (S-1) models. The bifactor (S-1) model evinced particular utility: Its general factor consistently predicts variation in relevant criterion measures, including 4 different experimental economic games (when played with a transgressor), and also suffuses a second self-report measure of forgiveness. Moreover, the general factor of the bifactor (S-1) model identifies a single psychological dimension that runs from hostility to friendliness while also pointing to other sources of variance that may be conceived of as method factors. Taken together, these results suggest that forgiveness can be usefully conceptualized as prosocial change along a single attitudinal continuum that ranges from hostility to friendliness.
AB - Researchers commonly conceptualize forgiveness as a rich complex of psychological changes involving attitudes, emotions, and behaviors. Psychometric work with the measures developed to capture this conceptual richness, however, often points to a simpler picture of the psychological dimensions in which forgiveness takes place. In an effort to better unite forgiveness theory and measurement, we evaluate several psychometric models for common measures of forgiveness. In doing so, we study people from the United States and Japan to understand forgiveness in both nonclose and close relationships. In addition, we assess the predictive utility of these models for several behavioral outcomes that traditionally have been linked to forgiveness motives. Finally, we use the methods of item response theory, which place person abilities and item responses on the same metric and, thus, help us draw psychological inferences from the ordering of item difficulties. Our results highlight models based on correlated factors models and bifactor (S-1) models. The bifactor (S-1) model evinced particular utility: Its general factor consistently predicts variation in relevant criterion measures, including 4 different experimental economic games (when played with a transgressor), and also suffuses a second self-report measure of forgiveness. Moreover, the general factor of the bifactor (S-1) model identifies a single psychological dimension that runs from hostility to friendliness while also pointing to other sources of variance that may be conceived of as method factors. Taken together, these results suggest that forgiveness can be usefully conceptualized as prosocial change along a single attitudinal continuum that ranges from hostility to friendliness.
KW - Bifactor model
KW - Cross-cultural
KW - Forgiveness
KW - Reconciliation
KW - TRIM
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076423261&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85076423261&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/pspi0000227
DO - 10.1037/pspi0000227
M3 - Article
C2 - 31815500
AN - SCOPUS:85076423261
VL - 119
SP - 861
EP - 880
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
SN - 0022-3514
IS - 4
ER -