What are forgiveness interventions?

On the festival of Prayushan Parva - Forgiveness Interventions

Edit

Both negative and positive affect play a role in forgiveness interventions. It is the general consensus across researchers in the field of psychology, that the overarching purpose of forgiveness interventions is to decrease overall negative affect associated with the stimulus and increase the individual’s positive affect.^[75][76]

The disease model has been mainly used in regards to therapy, however the incorporation of forgiveness into therapy has been lacking,^[75] and has been slowly gaining popularity in the last couple of decades.^[75] More recent research has shown how the growth of forgiveness in psychology has given rise to the study of forgiveness interventions.^[75]

Different TypesEdit

There are various forms of forgiveness interventions.^[75] One common adaptation used by researchers is where patients are forced to confront the entity preventing them from forgiving by usingintrospective techniques and expressing this to the therapist.^[75][76] Another popular forgiveness intervention is getting individual to try and see things from the offender’s point of view. The end goal for this adaptation is getting the individual to perhaps understand the reasoning behind the offender’s actions.^[75][76] If they are able to do this then they might be able to forgive the offender more easily.^[75][76]

There is, however, conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of forgiveness interventions.^[75]

Contrary EvidenceEdit

Although research has taken into account the positive aspects of forgiveness interventions, there are also negative aspects that have been explored as well. Some researchers have taken a critical approach and have been less accepting of the forgiveness intervention approach to therapy.^[75]

Critics have argued that forgiveness interventions may actually cause an increase in negative affect because it is trying to inhibit the individual’s own personal feelings towards the offender. This can result in the individual feeling negatively towards themselves.^[75] This approach is categorizing the individual’s feelings by implying that the negative emotions the individual is feeling are unacceptable and feelings of forgiveness is the correct and acceptable way to feel. It might inadvertently promote feelings of shameand contrition within the individual.^[75]

Some researchers also worry that forgiveness interventions will promote unhealthy relationships.^[75][77] They worry that individuals with toxic relationships will continue to forgive those who continuously commit wrong acts towards them when in fact they should be distancing themselves from these sorts of people.^[75][77]

A number of studies showcase high effectiveness rates of forgiveness interventions when done continuously over a long period of time.^[75] Some researchers have found that these interventions have been proven ineffective when done over short spans of time.^[75]

Forgiveness Interventions: ChildrenEdit

There has been some research within the last decade outlining some studies that have looked at the effectiveness of forgiveness interventions on young children. There have also been several studies done studying this cross culturally.^[75] One study that explored this relationship, was a study conducted in 2009 by Eadaoin Hui and Tat Sing Chau. In this study, Hui and Chau looked at the relationship between forgiveness interventions and Chinese children who were less likely to forgive those who had wronged them.^[75] The findings of this study showed that there was an effect of forgiveness interventions on the young Chinese children.^[75]