Self-forgiveness versus excusing: The roles of remorse, effort, and acceptance of responsibility

Abstract

Recent self-forgiveness research raises thorny issues: Are people who claim to forgive themselves merely excusing their offenses? Might it be adaptive for people to feel distress after they hurt others? This study asked 138 undergraduates to reflect on times when they offended others. Feelings of self-condemnation were associated with maladjustment, as shown in prior studies. However, participants reported more prosocial responses (repentance and a sense of being humbled) if they accepted responsibility, experienced remorse, and found that reducing negative feelings required effort. Egotism was associated with reluctance to accept responsibility, whereas a more shame-prone, neurotic pattern was associated with self-condemnation. To avoid confounding self-forgiveness with excusing, future studies should include responsibility ratings and should also distinguish between remorse and self-condemnation.

Notes

1. The third factor, which assessed positive attitudes toward the self, did not predict unique variance in prosocial outcomes when guilt and self-condemnation were taken into account. For this reason, and also because our main interest was in negative emotion, we chose not to create additional complexity by including the third factor in this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mickie L. Fisher

Portions of this research were based on a Masters Thesis at Case Western Reserve University by Mickie L. Fisher. Portions of the research were also presented at the 2004 Positive Psychology Summit. We are grateful to Joe Fagan, Alyce Martin, Ephraim Rose, Lee Thompson, and several anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.