With the development of the theory of positive psychology, forgiveness has been understood to constitute a psychological strength that may facilitate personal and relational health. This study involved two brief (four sessions) forgiveness education programmes based on the Enright Psycho-social Model and Chinese cultural values, respectively, to examine the effectiveness of the forgiveness programmes among Chinese college students. Twenty-four participants who attended three or more sessions formed the participants, and their data were used for data analysis. All of the participants were aged from 18 to 21 years. The effect of the two programmes on the participants’ decision and emotion to forgive and empathy toward the offenders were measured by the decisional forgiveness scale, emotional forgiveness scale, Batson’s empathy adjectives, one-item forgiveness scale, and one-item relationship scale. The effect of the programmes on participants’ psychological well-being was measured by the satisfaction with life scale. Qualitative feedback regarding the programme was collected from open questions in the post-test. The results suggested that both groups changed at almost the same rate on the variables, while the Chinese Value-oriented group had a slightly stronger effect in decreasing negative decisional forgiveness and negative emotional forgiveness. The analysis of the pretest and post-test scores indicated that both the Enright Psycho-social Programme and the Chinese Value-oriented Programme had positive effects on improving participants’ general emotional forgiveness, decreasing their negative emotions toward the offender, and improving life satisfaction. These findings need to be interpreted with caution, however, due to the small sample size involved. Further study may also consider integrating the two types of forgiveness education programmes and adopting an experiential approach with a longer duration.
Keywords: Forgiveness intervention Psychological well-being Chinese cultural values Positive educationAl-Mabuk, R. H., Enright, R. D., & Cardis, P. A. (1995). Forgiveness education with parentally love-deprived late adolescents. Journal of Moral Education, 24(4), 427–444.
Coke, J. S., Batson, C. D., & McDavis, K. (1978). Empathic mediation of helping: A two-stage model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 752–766.
Coyle, C. T., & Enright, R. D. (1997). Forgiving intervention with post-abortion men. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 1042–1046.
DiBlasio, F. A., & Benda, B. B. (2008). Forgiveness intervention with married couples: Two empirical analyses. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 27(2), 150–158.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75.
Durlak, J. A. (2009). How to select, calculate, and interpret effect sizes. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 34(9), 917–928.
Enright, R. D. (2001). Forgiveness is a choice: A step-by-step process for resolving anger and restoring hope. Washington D.C: American Psychological Association.
Enright, R. D., Rhody, M., Litts, B., & Klatt, J. S. (2014). Piloting forgiveness education in a divided community: Comparing electronic pen-pal and journaling activities across two groups of youth. Journal of Moral Education, 43, 1–17.
Freedman, S. R., & Enright, R. D. (1996). Forgiveness as an intervention goal with incest survivors. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(5), 983–992.
Freedman, S. R., & Knupp, A. (2003). The impact of forgiveness on adolescent adjustment to parental divorce. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 39(1–2), 135–164.
Fu, H., Watkins, D., & Hui, E. (2004). Personality correlates of the disposition towards interpersonal forgiveness: a Chinese perspective. International Journal of Psychology, 39(4), 305–316.
Fung, Y. L. (1948). A short history of Chinese philosophy. New York: Macmillan.
Gambaro, M. E., Enright, R. D., Baskin, T. A., & Klatt, J. (2008). Can school-based forgiveness counseling improve conduct and academic achievement in academically at-risk adolescents? Journal of Research in Education, 18, 16–27.
Hedges, L. V., & Olkin, I. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis. Orlando: Academic Press.
Hook, J. N., Worthington, E. L., Davis, D. E., Watkins, D., Hui, E., Luo, W., Fu, H., Shulruf, B., Morris, P. & Reyna, S. H. (2013) A China–New Zealand comparison of forgiveness. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 16, 286–291.
Hui, E. K. P., & Chau, T. S. (2009). The impact of a forgiveness intervention with Hong Kong Chinese children hurt interpersonal relationships. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 37(2), 141–156.
Ji, M., Hui, E. K. P., Fu, H., Watkins, D., Tao, L., & Lo, S.K. (2016) Effects of a culture-adaptive forgiveness intervention for Chinese college students. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling. doi:10.1080/03069885.2015.1130798.
Lamb, S. (2002). Introduction: Reasons to be cautious about the use of forgiveness in psycho-therapy. In S. Lamb & J. G. Murphy (Eds.), Before forgiving: Cautionary views of forgiveness in psychotherapy (pp. 3–14). New York: Oxford University Press.
Lin, W. F., Mack, D., Enright, R. D., Krahn, D., & Baskin, T. W. (2004). Effects of forgiveness therapy on anger, mood, and vulnerability to substance use among inpatient substance-dependent clients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72(6), 1114–1121.
Lopes, S. J., Prosser, E. C., Edwards, L. M., Magyar-Moe, J. L., Neufeld, J. E., & Rasmussen, H. N. (2002). Putting positive psychology in a multicultural context. In C. R. Snyder & S. Lopes (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 700–714). New York: Oxford University Press.
McCullough, M. E., Pargament, K. I., & Thoresen, C. E. (2000). Forgiveness: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Guilford Press.
McCullough, M. E., Witvliet, C. (2002) The psychology of forgiveness. In: C. R. Snyder & S. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. xviii, p. 829). New York: Oxford University Press.
Nakagawa, S., & Cuthill, I. C. (2007). Effect size, confidence interval and statistical significance: A practical guide for biologists. Biological Reviews, 82, 591–605.
Neto, J., Enright, R., Seibel, B., & Koller, S. (2013). Positive psychology and interpersonal forgiveness within cultures. In H. Á. Marujo & L. M. Neto (Eds.), Positive nations and communities: Collective, qualitative and cultural sensitive processes in positive psychology (pp. 135–148). New York: Springer Science and Business Media.
Oyserman, D., Coon, H. M., & Kemmelmeier, M. (2002). Rethinking individualism and collectivism: Evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 3–72.
Park, J. H., Enright, R. D., Essex, M. J., Zahn-Waxler, C., & Klatt, J. S. (2013). Forgiveness intervention for female South Korean adolescent aggressive victims. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 20, 393–402.
Reed, G. L., & Enright, R. D. (2006). The effects of forgiveness therapy on depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress for women after spousal emotional abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(5), 920–929.
Sandage, S. J., Hill, P. C., & Vang, H. C. (2003). Toward a multicultural positive psychology: Indigenous forgiveness and Hmong culture. The Counseling Psychologist, 31(5), 564.
Sandage, S. J., & Worthington, E. L. (2010). Comparison of two group interventions to promote forgiveness: Empathy as a mediator of change. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 32(1), 35–57.
Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikscentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14.
Seligman, M. E. P., Ernst, R. M., Gillham, J., Reivich, K., & Linkins, M. (2009). Positive education: Positive psychology and classroom interventions. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 293–311.
Tang, S. S. C. (2014). Implementation and Evaluation of the Forgiveness Education Programmes Based on Process Model and Chinese Values with Hong Kong Chinese Youth. Unpublished doctoral thesis, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Toussaint, L., & Friedman, P. (2008). Forgiveness, gratitude, and well-being: The mediating role of affect and beliefs. Journal of Happiness Studies, December.,. doi:10.1007/s10902-008-9111-8.
Toussaint, L., & Webb, J. R. (2005). Theoretical and empirical connections between forgiveness, mental health, and well-being. In E. L. Worthington (Ed.), Handbook of forgiveness. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Wang, H., & Zhang, H. (2007). On the loss of tolerance consciousness of college students and the countermeasures (Shi lun gao xiao da xue sheng kuan rong yi shi de que shi yu dui ce). Journal of Chongqing Institute of Technology (Social Science Edition), 21(7), 167–169.
Worthington, E. L, Jr. (2005). Handbook of forgiveness. New York: Routledge.
Worthington, E. L, Jr. (2006). Forgiveness and reconciliation: Theory and application. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Worthington, E. L., Jr., Hook, J. N., Utsey, S. O., Williams, J. K., & Neil, R. L. (2007). Decisional and emotional forgiveness. Paper presented at the International Positive Psychology Summit.
Ye, S. (2007). Validation of the Temporal Satisfaction with life scale in a sample of Chinese University students. Social Indicators Research, 80(3), 617–628.