Outline The Role Of Forgiveness In Psychology

Internal forgiveness is driven by a person's conscience and it forces him to ask for forgiveness and seek forgiveness from somewhere.

Forgiveness is the act of forgiving someone or something. What this means is that forgiveness is a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. A quote from Luminita D. Savic “People should forgive because forgiveness is an act of strength. You don’t forgive because you are weak, but because you are strong enough to realize that only by letting go of resentments you will be happy and at peace. Also forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself, to be at peace, to be happy and to be able to sleep at night.

Inversely, according to Ingersoll-Dayton, & Ha (2009), forgiveness regarded replacing negative behaviors and thinking towards the offender in hopes of rendering inner

“Forgiveness, assert Fincham and his colleagues, can help restore more benevolent and cooperative goals to relationships” Everett L. Worthington, Jr.(2004). New Science of Forgiveness.

The motivation and tendency of people to forgive others remains an important topic of discussion. In today’s society most people at some period have experienced feeling of un forgiveness towards friend, or relatives. “Forgiveness was defined as the ability to relinquish of resentment towards others” (Baskin & Enright, 2004, p. 80).

There have been several times in my personal life where I have been hurt emotionally and

The article "Self-forgiveness: The forgotten stepchild of forgiveness research" is a qualitative rather than a quantitative study of the phenomenon of self-forgiveness. The authors distinguish self-forgiveness versus forgiveness of an 'other' in an outwardly-directed fashion. They state that self-forgiveness has been under-studied in the existing literature. The beginning of the article is devoted to a literature review of existing writings upon the subject, with using a working definition of self forgiveness "as a set of motivational changes whereby one becomes decreasingly motivated to avoid stimuli associated with the offense, decreasingly motivated to retaliate against the self 地nd increasingly motivated to act benevolently toward the self" (Hall & Fincham 2005: 622).

“One must first uncover one’s anger. In doing so, one can work through such issues as identifying psychological defenses (like denial), confronting the anger, or sometimes acknowledging the experience of shame…Once one has committed to forgive, one can begin the work of forgiveness by viewing the offender in new ways by developing empathy and compassion toward the offender…After one has work on forgiveness, one might find new meaning in the suffering, recognize that one has been an offender in the past, and realize that one is not alone

This in turn leads to the idea in which forgiveness is a cancellation of a debt and the offended party no longer expects repayment for the pain caused (Pettigrove, 2012). Additionally, forgiveness is the release of bitterness or anger as an effect of an apparent offense while ceasing to demand punishment (Pettigrove, 2012). Furthermore, it begins by accepting what has happened and choosing to let go by making a decision to forgive and love the offender by canceling the debt (Pettigrove, 2012). Likewise, it releases judgement as well as thoughts of revenge or ill-will to the one who caused harm while resuming some form of a relationship with those who caused the hardship (Pettigrove, 2012). What is more, it is taking the responsibility for one’s own feelings while taking back control of one’s life instead of allowing those feelings complete control (Pettigrove, 2012). Finally, it allows God the room to move and work within our lives as He begins to heal the brokenness.

The article “Self- Forgiveness: The Stepchild of Forgiveness Research” covered the topic of self-forgiveness. This article focused on self-forgiveness from many perspectives such as the victims, and the offenders. It also described and defined self–forgiveness, intrapersonal forgiveness, interpersonal forgiveness and pseudo self–forgiveness. Hall (2005), explained in the article that there is multiple definitions of forgiveness. However, majority of the definitions are similar. “In the psychology literature, self–forgiveness has been defined as “a willingness to abandon self–resentment in the face of one’s own acknowledged objective wrong, while fostering compassion, generosity, and love toward oneself” (Hall, 2005, p.622). The article

The reading discusses two different models of forgiveness, Enright’s process model and Worthington’s REACH model. The Enright’s model has four stages that the person goes through: uncovering anger, deciding

In general, self-forgiveness is identified by a common ability to exhibit self-respect in spite of the acceptance of wrong-doing (Hall, J., Fincham, D., 2005). I never considered the distinction between interpersonal forgiveness and intrapersonal forgiveness. While they share many similarities, there is even greater evidence of the differences between the two. One significant difference involves the consequences of withholding forgiveness from self. It is likely that intrapersonal unforgiveness can be much more detrimental than interpersonal. Hall & Fincham state “ Self-forgiveness often entails a resolution to change” (2005). It is this process of acceptance of one’s own imperfections and sinful nature that catapults a desire for self-improvement and growth. This is a critical component of healing the soul and beginning the journey to spiritual and mental health. Also enlightening was the declaration that one can experience pseudo self forgiveness by failing to acknowledge any wrong doing and convincing him/herself that they are without fault. Finally, I was struck by the notion that self-forgiveness will typically

Hall and Finchman is (2005) intent with their research was to provide self-forgiveness more recognition aside from what it has received in previous years. Their intent is for more research to be conducted on self-forgiveness in the area of literature. The authors gave the definition of what is self-forgiveness in both scientific and philosophic literature. The authors elaborate on why people do not forgive themselves initially and the reason for the lack of attention of forgiveness is mainly due to individuals not wanting to face reality. People tend to put a bandage on their problems rather than allowing their situation to take the course through the phases of denial, guilt, or shame and working through them as they progress (Hall & Fincham,

Interpersonal definitions and models of forgiveness focus almost exclusively on the relationship between the perpetrator and the

“Although there is as yet no consensus in the scientific literature on the exact nature of forgiveness, central to various approaches is the idea of a freely chosen motivational transformation in which the desire to seek revenge and to avoid contact with the transgressor is overcome. Forgiveness, like gratitude, is therefore inherently interpersonal, and this is captured well by North's (I 998, p. 19) statement that it is "outward-looking and other-directed."