Forgivingness: Relationships With Conceptualizations of Divine Forgiveness and Childhood Memories

Abstract

The present study examined the extent to which the three-aspect construct of forgivingness—Lasting Resentment, Sensitivity to Circumstances of the offense, and Unconditional Forgiveness—applies to the way believers in God conceptualize God's forgiveness and remember the atmosphere of forgiveness (or unforgiveness) that prevailed in their family. It also examined the relationships between forgivingness, conceptualizations of God's forgiveness, and the way people remember the atmosphere of forgiveness in their family. One hundred eighty-two participants were presented with (a) the Forgivingness Scale, (b) the Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale, (c) a questionnaire referring to participants' possible conceptualizations of divine forgiveness, (d) a questionnaire referring to the experience of forgiveness in the family, and (e) six additional short scales that assessed the predictability of God's forgiveness, the feeling of having been forgiven by God and by the family, the feeling of having been able to forgive God and to forgive the family, and the predictability of God's forgiveness and of the family's forgiveness. The data were consistent with the idea that people conceptualize (a) God's forgiveness around three aspects: Resentful God, Sensitive God, and Unconditionally Forgiving God, and (b) family's forgiveness around three symmetrical aspects: Resentful Family, Sensitive Family, and Unconditionally Forgiving Family. Sensitivity to circumstances was essentially associated with participants' reports about their parents' sensitivity to circumstances. Unconditional forgiveness was essentially associated with the way participants conceptualize God's forgiveness. Finally, Lasting Resentment was above all correlated with unpredictability, in God or in family, and it was also related to the factor called Resentful family.

Notes

*p < .001.