The Validation of Tendency to Forgive and Attitudes Toward Forgiveness Scale on the Russian-Speaking Sample

Abstract

The article presents the results of the validation of the Tendency To Forgive and Attitudes Towards Forgiveness Scale on a Russian sample which included 366 healthy adult participants. The questionnaire is based on R. Enright’s cognitive model of forgiveness, in which the ability to forgive is determined by the social cognition quality (awareness of one’s own emotions and emotion self-regulation and empathy towards the offender). The study established plausible reliability of both scales. Confirmatory factor analysis was also conducted. The authors analyzed correlations of the tendency to forgive and attitudes towards forgiveness with indicators of emotional ill-being, social cognition, quality of life, life satisfaction, and a number of personal traits (such as Machiavellianism and the Big Five: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience). The results are discussed in the context of adaptive versus maladaptive aspects of forgiveness, as well as in the context of the psychological basis of adaptive ability to forgive.

Keywords

• endency to Forgive Scale
• attitudes toward forgiveness
• social cognition
• cognitive therapy for depressive disorders