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Writing about the benefits of an interpersonal transgression facilitates forgiveness.

2006; American Psychological Association; Volume: 74; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1037/0022-006x.74.5.887

1939-2117

Michael E. McCullough, Lindsey M. Root, Adam Cohen,

Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health

The authors examined the effects of writing about the benefits of an interpersonal transgression on forgiveness. Participants (N = 304) were randomly assigned to one of three 20-min writing tasks in which they wrote about either (a) traumatic features of the most recent interpersonal transgression they had suffered, (b) personal benefits resulting from the transgression, or (c) a control topic that was unrelated to the transgression. Participants in the benefit-finding condition became more forgiving toward their transgressors than did those in the other 2 conditions, who did not differ from each other. In part, the benefit-finding condition appeared to facilitate forgiveness by encouraging participants to engage in cognitive processing as they wrote their essays. Results suggest that benefit finding may be a unique and useful addition to efforts to help people forgive interpersonal transgressions through structured interventions. The Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory--18-Item Version (TRIM-18) is appended.