Forgiveness Among Families
Frank Fincham, Ph.D., Department of Psychology at Florida State University
ffincham@fsu.edu, Frequent Collaborators: Steven R.H. Beach, J. Davila, F. G. Paleari, C., Regalia, Michael E. McCullough, J.N. Kearns, J.H. Hall
About the Investigator and His Research in Forgiveness
Dr. Frank Fincham received a grant under the 1998 John Templeton Foundation RFP. He was in Wales at the University of Cardiff. He moved soon afterward to the University of Buffalo. He has since become the Eminent Scholar and Director of the Florida State University Family Institute. Dr. Fincham is one of the most cited researchers in
Psychology. He publishes extensively on marriage. He did not publish on forgiveness until 2000, yet he already has over 20 published articles investigating forgiveness in marriage—many of which reported several empirical studies.
References
Fincham, F.D. (2000). The kiss of the porcupines: From attributing responsibility to forgiving. Personal Relationships, 7, 1-23.
Fincham, F.D. (2003). Marital conflict: Correlates, structure, and context. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 23-27.
Fincham, F.D., & Beach, S.R.H. (2001). Forgiveness: Toward a public health approach to intervention. In J.H. Harvey & A. Wenzel (Eds.), A clinician’s guide to maintaining and enhancing close relationships (pp. 277-300). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Fincham, F.D., & Beach, S.R.H. (2002). Forgiveness in marriage: Implications for psychological aggression and constructive communication. Personal Relationships, 9, 239-251.
Fincham, F.D., & Beach, S.R.H. (2002). Forgiving in close relationships. In F. Columbus (Ed.), Advances in psychology research, Vol. 7 (pp. 163-197). Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publisher.
Fincham, F.D., & Beach, S.R.H. (in press). Relationship satisfaction. In D. Pearlman & A. Vangelisti (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of personal relationships. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fincham, F.D., Beach, S.R.H., & Davila, J. (2004). Forgiveness and conflict resolution in marriage. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 72-81.
Fincham, F.D., Hall, J.H., & Beach, S.R.H. (2005). “’Til lack of forgiveness doth us part”: Forgiveness in Marriage. In E.L. Worthington, Jr. (Ed.), Handbook of Forgiveness (pp.207-226). New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Fincham, F.D., Jackson, H., & Beach, S.R.H. (in press). Transgression severity and 2005 forgiveness: Different moderators for objective and subjective severity. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
Fincham F.D., & Kashdan, T.B. (in press). Facilitating forgiveness: Developing Group and Community Interventions. In P.A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), International Handbook of Positive Psychology in Practice: From Research to Application. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Fincham, F.D., Paleari, F.G., & Regalia, C. (2002). Forgiveness in marriage: The role of relationship quality, attributions, and empathy. Personal Relationships, 9, 27-37.
Hall, J.H., & Fincham, F.D. (in press). Self-forgiveness: The stepchild of forgiveness research. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
Hoyt, W.T., Fincham, F.D., McCullough, M.E., Maio, G., & Davila, J. (in press). Responses to interpersonal transgressions in families: Forgivingness, forgivability, and relationship-specific effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Kachadourian, L.K., Fincham, F.D., & Davila, J. (2004). The tendency to forgive in dating and married couples: Association with attachment and relationship satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 11, 373-393.
Kachadourian, L., Fincham, F.D., & Davila, J. (in press). Attitudinal ambivalence, rumination and forgiveness of partner transgressions in marriage. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Kachadourian, L.K., Fincham, F.D., & Davila, J. (in press). The tendency to forgive in dating and married couples: The role of attachment and relationship satisfaction. Personal Relationships.
Kearns, J.N., & Fincham, F.D. (2004). A prototype analysis of forgiveness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 838-855.
Kearns, J. & Fincham, F.D. (in press). Victim and perpetrator accounts of interpersonal transgressions: Self-serving or relationship-serving biases. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
McCullough, M.E., Fincham, F.D., & Tsang, J. (2003). Forgiveness, forbearance, and time: The temporal unfolding of transgression-related interpersonal motivations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 540-557.
Paleari, F.G., Regalia, C., & Fincham, F.D. (2003). Adolescents’ willingness to forgive their parents: An empirical model. Parenting: Science and Practice, 3, 155-174.
Paleari, F.G., Regalia, C., & Fincham, F.D. (in press). Marital quality, forgiveness, empathy, and rumination: A longitudinal analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
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“Introduction of a New Model of Forgiveness: Measurement & Intervention”
Forgiveness Among Individuals: Models and Theories of Forgiveness
C. R. Snyder, Ph.D.,Department of Psychology at the University of Kansas
crsnyder@ku.edu
About the Investigator and His Research in Forgiveness
Dr. C.R. (Rick) Snyder is one of the foremost researchers studying positive psychology today. He has developed the field of hope into a self-sustaining field of study, and he has also worked to study forgiveness as part of positive psychology. Dr. Snyder and his former graduate student Laura Thompson have developed the widely used Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS). In a recent article, the psychometric support for the instrument
was published. The HFS assesses forgiveness of others, self, and situations.
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Dispositional forgiveness of self, others, and situations.
Thompson, L.Y., Snyder, C.R., Hoffman, L., Michael, S.T., Rasmussen, H.N.,
Billings, L.S., Heinze, L., Neufeld, J.E., Shorey, H.S., Roberts, J.C., & Roberts, D.E. (in press). Journal of Personality, 73, 313-359.
“Psychosocial Effects of Forgiveness Training with Adults”
Forgiveness Among Individuals: The Relationship Between Forgiveness and Health The Study of Forgiveness with Victims and Offenders
Carl Thoresen, Ph.D. Department of Psychology at Stanford University
cthor@leland.stanford.edu
Co-PI’s: Cheryl Koopman, Fredrick Luskin, Ph.D., Alex Harris, Ph.D.
About the Investigators and Their Research in Forgiveness
Dr. Carl E. Thoresen, is Professor Emeritus of Education and, by courtesy, Psychology and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He is also Senior Fellow in the Spirituality and Health Institute (SHI) at Santa Clara University. He served as Principal Investigator of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, a large randomized trial of forgiveness training program. He has published extensively on science and psychology of
forgiveness, spirituality, and health. He continues to do research and writing through Stanford. He was the hub of a generative group of researchers, notably Dr. Fred Luskin and Dr. Alex H.S. Harris, both of whom studied with Dr. Thoresen at Stanford, but both of whom have continued to be active to promote forgiveness, especially in the area of
health. Dr. Thoresen worked on the original Type A Behavior studies, and developed an expertise in health research and its intersection with interventions and rigorous methodology.
References Luskin, F.M., Ginzb
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“Betrayal, Forgiveness & Reconciliation in Close Relationships”
Forgiveness Among Families
Caryl Rusbult, Ph.D.Department of Social Psychology at Free University, Netherlands Ce.rusbult@psy.vu.nl Frequent Collaborators: Eli Finkel, Paul Van Lange, Peggy Hannon,Johan Karremans About the Investigators and Their Research in Forgiveness Dr. Caryl E. Rusbult has, since her grant was funded under the 1998 RFP, moved from the University of North Carolina to the Free University in the Netherlands. She is Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Psychology at the Free University. She has published over 90 journal articles or chapters, along with two books. She is best
known for her theory and research regarding commitment processes and relationship maintenance behaviors (e.g., forgiveness, accommodation, derogation of alternatives).
Much of her recent work concerns the “Michelangelo phenomenon,” which concerns the ways in which close partners shape one another’s dispositions, values, and behavioral tendencies, thereby moving each person closer to (vs. further from) his or her ideal self.
Dr. Rusbult fostered a generative laboratory of researchers who studied forgiveness as one part of the interdependence theory. These researchers have seen forgiveness as involving interpersonal processes (thus considering interactions between victims and offenders and measuring their behavior among other variables. So they deviate from most researchers who have studied forgiveness, who understand forgiveness to be an internal
intrapersonal process that is situated within an interpersonal context. Nevertheless, the work of Dr. Rusbult and her colleagues have tied forgiveness to a larger more established literature on interdependence theory.
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Dealing with betrayal in close relationships: Does commitment promote forgiveness?
Finkel, E.J., Rusbult, C.E., Kumashiro, M. & Hannon, P.A. (2002). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 956-974.
Forgiveness as an
interaction-based phenomenon: Perpetrator amends, victim forgiveness, and the resolution of betrayal incidents.
Hannon, P.A., Rusbult, C.E., Finkel, E.J., & Kumashiro, M. (2004). Unpublished manuscript, University of Washington.
Forgiveness of transgressions in close relationships: Moving from self-interested impulses to relationship-oriented actions.
Rusbult, C.E., Davis, J.L., Finkel, E.J., Hannon, P., & Olsen, N. (2004). Unpublished manuscript, Free University at Amsterdam.
Forgiveness and relational repair.
Rusbult, C.E., Hannon, P.A., Stocker, S.L., & Finkel, E.J. (2005). In E.L. Worthington, Jr. (Ed.), Handbook of Forgiveness. (pp. 185-206). New York: Brunner-Routledge.
The war of the roses: An interdependence analysis of betrayal and forgiveness. Rusbult, C.E., Kumashiro, M., Finkel E.J., & Wildschut, T. (2002). In P. Noller & J. A. Feeney (Eds.), Understanding marriage: Developments in the study of couple interaction (pp. 251-281). New York: Cambridge University Press. Rusbult, C.E., Olsen, N. Davis, J.L., & Hannon, P. (2001). Commitment and relationship maintenance mechanisms. In J.H. Harvey & A. Wenzel (Eds.), Close romantic relationships: Maintenance and enhancement (pp. 87-113). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Forgiveness Among Individuals: The Relationship Between Forgiveness and Health Charlotte Witvliet, Ph.D., Department of Psychology at Hope College
witvliet@hope.edu, “Embodied Forgiveness: Empirical Studies of Cognitive Emotional & Physical Dimensions of Forgiveness-related Responses”
Frequent Collaborators: Michael McCullough, Nathaniel Wade, Everett
L. Worthington, Jr.
About the Investigator and Her Research in Forgiveness Dr. Charlotte van Oyen Witvliet is a Professor of Psychology at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. She is trained as a scientist-practitioner Clinical sychologist. She publishes in the field of emotion and psychophysiology research. Her specialized focus is in unforgiveness, forgiveness, and justice. With the support of the John Templeton Foundation, and a four-year Hope College Towsley Research Scholar Award, she has conducted programmatic empirical studies of forgiveness, published journal articles and book chapters, and given presentations in local, national, and international venues.
McCullough, M.E., & Witvliet, C.V.O. (2001). The psychology of forgiveness. In C.R.Snyder and S. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 446-458). New York: Oxford.
McCullough, M.E., & Witvliet, C.V.O. (2002). The psychology of forgiveness. In C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 446-458). New York: Oxford University Press
