God’s Perceived Engagement/Disengagement in Response to Prayer and Interpersonal Forgiveness: The Mediating Role of Positive Orientation (original) (raw)
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The effects of brief prayer on the experience of forgiveness: An American and Indian comparison
International Journal of Psychology, 2015
T he present study offers a cross-cultural examination of the effect of prayer on forgiveness. American (n = 51) and Indian (n = 100) participants either prayed for their romantic partner (prayer condition) or described their romantic partner's physical attributes (control condition). Prayers were self-guided and lasted 3 minutes. Pre-test and post-test measures of retaliation were completed. Results showed that participants in the prayer group showed statistically significant decreases in retaliation motives from pre-test to post-test and the magnitude of this change was not different across cultures. Control groups in both cultures showed no change. Because of the religious diversity present in the Indian sample, the robustness of the effect of prayer on forgiveness was tested across Christian, Hindu and Muslim Indians. Religious affiliation did not moderate the effect of prayer on forgiveness in this sample. Results suggest that a brief prayer is capable of producing real change in forgiveness and this change is consistent across American and Indian cultures and across three different religious groups in India. Brief prayer for others that enhances forgiveness may be useful for individuals in close relationships, in certain counselling settings and for people in many different walks of life.
Encounter, 2014
The psychology of forgiveness has primarily focused on intrapersonal forgiveness in response to an interpersonal offense. Clearly, the study of the supernatural, including God’s forgiveness of people, is a process beyond scientific study. However, psychological scientists can study how people respond to perceptions of God’s forgiveness and what happens when people forgive others or themselves. Forgiveness of others has resulted in health and relationship benefits. More recently, psychologists have considered the benefits of self-forgiveness. Self-forgiveness is different from forgiving others, because in self-forgiveness a person is usually attempting to rid oneself of guilt for having harmed another rather than forgiving another for the harm received. This article will review the concept of forgiveness, studies about forgiveness and health, and studies related to psychological interventions. In addition, it will also review studies that have a direct or indirect link to Christian spirituality.
Polskie Forum Psychologiczne, 2019
The two studies portray the predictors and functions of tendency and attitudes toward forgiveness in interpersonal relationships. Study 1 includes the analysis of relationships between personality traits, parental attitudes, religious struggle, tendency and attitudes toward forgiveness. Study 2 embraces the analysis of the mediatory function of tendency and attitudes toward forgiveness in the relationship of religious struggle with mental health. The research showed that the predictors of attitudes toward forgiveness are as follows: high religious guilt, low negative affect toward God and low negative interactions with believers. The predictors of tendency to forgive are as follows: low neuroticism, low protective attitudes of parents and low negative affect toward God. Only tendency to forgive is a significant mediator in the relationship of religious struggle with satisfaction with life, stress, and mental health.
A Positive Relationship Between Religious Faith and Forgiveness: Faith in the Absence of Data
Pastoral Psychology, 2002
Religious faith and beliefs appear to play an important role in the lives of many individuals and are the topic of much research. The present study investigated the relationship between religious faith and forgiveness in a sample (n = 196) of college students. Students were asked to complete the Heartland Forgiveness Scale and the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire. Analyses of scores on both measures revealed a positive, significant correlation between these constructs, suggesting that there is a meaningful relationship between religious faith and the tendency to forgive. Implications and directions for further research are discussed.
Motivating Change in Relationships Can Prayer Increase Forgiveness?
2010
Abstract The objective of the current studies was to test whether praying for a relationship partner would increase willingness to forgive that partner. In Study 1 (N= 52), participants assigned to pray for their romantic partner reported greater willingness to forgive that partner than those who described their partner to an imagined parent. In Study 2 (N= 67), participants were assigned to pray for a friend, pray about any topic, or think positive thoughts about a friend every day for 4 weeks.
We analyze a sample of older U.S. adults with religious backgrounds in order to examine the relationships among two types of divine forgiveness and three indicators of psychological well-being (PWB) as well as the moderating role of attachment to God. Results suggest that (a) feeling forgiven by God and transactional forgiveness from God are not associated with changes in PWB over time, (b) secure attachment to God at baseline is associated with increased optimism and self-esteem, (c) feeling forgiven by God and transactional forgiveness from God are more strongly associated with increased PWB among the securely attached, and (d) among the avoidantly attached, PWB is associated with consistency in one's beliefs, that is, a decreased emphasis on forgiveness from God. Findings underscore the importance of subjective beliefs about God in the lives of many older adults in the United States.
Research on religion/spirituality and forgiveness: A meta-analytic review
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2013
In the present article, we review the literature on religion/spirituality (R/S) and forgiveness using meta-analysis. R/S was positively related to trait forgivingness (i.e., across relationships and situations; r ϭ .29), state forgiveness (i.e., of a specific offense; r ϭ .15), and self-forgiveness (r ϭ .12). Contextual measures of R/S more proximal to the forgiveness process were more strongly related to state forgiveness than were dispositional measures of R/S. Measures of one's relationship with the sacred were more strongly related to self-forgiveness than were dispositional R/S measures. We discuss implications for next steps in the study of R/S and forgiveness.
Divine forgiveness and interpersonal forgiveness: Which comes first?
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2021
Do people forgive others’ transgressions because they have experienced God’s forgiveness, or do they engage in earthly forgiveness in the service of seeking God’s forgiveness? Absent systematic research on divine forgiveness, two longitudinal studies were conducted to investigate the potential direction of effects between interpersonal and divine forgiveness. Study 1 (n=447) found that divine forgiveness predicted interpersonal forgiveness 7 weeks later, but the reverse was not the case. These findings could not be attributed to religiosity which was used as a covariate. Study 2 (n=256) probed a potential boundary condition for these findings by using a longer interval (14 weeks) and examined whether relations between the types of forgiveness reflected socially desirable responding. The same pattern of results was replicated; divine forgiveness predicted later interpersonal forgiveness but not vice versa. Factors known to increase interpersonal forgiveness are identified that may ac...