Forgiveness Positive Psychology

Abstract The research in this paper will discuss the important principles of forgiveness in the positive psychology field. This paper will also touch on and answer the following questions, what are the benefits of forgiving someone? What are the drawbacks and negative health influences if a person does not forgive? In recent research, studies have shown that forgiveness may be useful in a prison or other stressful setting while working with offenders or others. Concluding in on all the research that has been done, it has been concluded that benefits of forgiveness considerably out the way the negatives for not forging someone. It is beneficial to remember that forgiveness is character strength and it is important in order to obtain living

Forgiveness in the psychology field falls under the virtue of self- restraint. Temperance or self- restraint is the virtue that protects us of too much excessive hatred, and forgiveness “protects us” from this hatred (Peterson 2006). While researching the topic of Forgiveness in positive psychology many different definitions as to what forgiveness really means. The most common definition to be used was by Robert Enright, he defined forgiveness, as a “ willingness to abandon one’s right to resentment, negative judgment, and indifferent behavior toward one who unjustly hurt us, while fostering the undeserved qualities of compassion, generosity even love him or her,” (Snyder et al., 2010). The message overall seemed to be forgive the person who has done the wrong because the negative grudges and feelings aren’t worth it. These negative emotions will then bring upon angered feelings and makes it hard for people to move on from the situation. Overall, forgiveness is the letting go of negative feelings toward someone who did us wrong. These negative feelings may ignite angered emotions, actions of revenge or other thoughts. With that in mind, many

A major drawback consists of bad health habits. These health habits are in the form of alcohol, cigarette, and drug use (Lawler-Row et al., 2008). It is unbelievable to the results of a person being unable to forgive easily would be more involved in drugs and alcohol. People who showed signs of lower levels of forgiveness were also exhibited physiological health issues such as a higher resting heart rate and blood pressure (Lawler-Row et al., 2008). That fact is able to make sense because as stated earlier, un-forgiveness is a leading cause of related health problems such as heightened blood pressure. Not only does this anger affect blood pressure, but it also lowers the unforgiving person’s immune functioning (Worthington et al., 2005). The study by Worthington basically means that a person who is less likely to forgive will not only suffer from a form of a heart condition but also some form of illness. The correlation between forgiveness and a person health has been researched and has clearly shown that if a person shows to be unforgiving then it may have an affect on one’s mental health and