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Empathy And Cognitive Flexibility As Correlates Of Forgiveness, Rebecca Bennett Katovsich

Dissertations

Problem. For the past three decades, there has been a growing body of literature related to the topic of forgiveness. The idea that empathy, consisting of both emotional and cognitive aspects, plays an integral role in the process of forgiveness is widely supported in the literature, although there is limited empirical evidence for this claim. Beyond interest in examining the relationship between forgiveness and empathy, this research also aimed to explore the role of cognitive flexibility in the forgivenessprocess, considering both the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of cognitive flexibility.

Method. The Enright Forgiveness Inventory, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the NEO …

The Implications Of Conjunctive And Disjunctive Forgiveness For Sexual Abuse, Herbert W. Helm, Jonathan R. Cook, John M. Berecz

Faculty Publications

This article examines the relationship between forgiveness styles (conjunctive and disjunctive models) and sexual abuse. Surveys from 114 university students were analyzed for differences between non-sexually abused and sexually abused subjects on a number of psychological and physical well-being variables. A number of differences were found including higher levels of reported verbal and physical abuse for the sexually abused subjects. Only one sexually abused subject was found that fit the pattern of conjunctive forgiveness (one of reconciliation) towards the offender. The majority of sexually abused subjects preferred to keep their distance from the abuser, regardless of the extent to which …