Abstract
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.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 887-897 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of consulting and clinical psychology |
Volume | 74 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2006 |
Keywords
- Benefit finding
- Forgiveness
- LIWC
- Meaning
- TRIM
- Writing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Clinical Psychology