The Effects of Forgiveness on Mental Health

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Forgiveness has been defined in many ways by psychologists and researchers with no one universal definition. Hill (as cited in Maltby, Day and Mackaskill 2001) state that it is widely agreed that forgiveness involves a willingness to abandon resentment, negative judgement and indifferent behaviour towards the person who has hurt them Although research is recent, from the last 15 years, it has helped develop our understanding of forgiveness . Research has shown that forgiveness gives positive mental health and prevents the development of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress. Two major models of forgiveness are Enright’s model and Worthington’s (2001) pyramid model to REACH forgiveness. Both these models involve steps and processes we go through in order to reach forgiveness. Individual differences are also taken into consideration such as personality traits such as the big 5 and narcissism which helps our understanding of why some individuals forgive and others do not and why as a result some individuals have poorer mental health as they are unable to forgive. This essay will therefore argue that the process and structural models have helped our understanding of forgiveness in terms of individual differences and mental health as they have shown steps we need to go through to reach forgiveness and research has additionally shown that those who do not forgive have poorer mental health. Furthermore it has shown that individual differences affect whether people can forgive or not taking into account personality traits. A process model of forgiveness is Enright’s model. Originally this involved seventeen stages incorporating cognitive, affective and behavioural elements (Enright and the human development group 1991) ... ... middle of paper ... ...bes-bolyai, thrologia catholica Latina, LI, 1 Maltby, J., Day, L., Mackaskill, A. (2007) Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence. Harlow, Pearson prentice Hall McCullough, M.E, Pargament, K.I., Thoreson, C.E (2000) Forgiveness; Theory research and practice (eds) New York, The Guilford press Mccullough, M.E., Sandage S.J., and Worthington, E.L.Jr. (1997) To forgive is human: How to put your past in the past. Downers Grove, IL, Intervarsity press. Walker, D.F., Gorsuch (2002). Forgiveness within the big 5 personality model. Journal of personality and individual differences, 32, 1127-1137 Worthington, E. L. Jr. (2001) Five steps to forgiveness: The art and science of forgiving, New York, Crown Younger,J.W., Piferi, R.L.,. Jobe, R.L., Lawler,K.A. (2000) Dimensions of forgiveness. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 21: 837

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