Abstract

PINHO, Vanessa Dordron de  and  FALCONE, Eliane Mary de Oliveira. Relations among empathy, resilience and interpersonal forgiveness. Rev. bras.ter. cogn. [online]. 2017, vol.13, n.2, pp.138-146. ISSN 1808-5687.  https://doi.org/10.5935/1808-5687.20170019.

Interpersonal forgiveness can be understood as the victim's experience of change in emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses towards an offender. This phenomenon is pointed out in the literature as beneficial for physical and emotional health of the pardoning victim, and for the interpersonal relationship between the victim and the offender. It is therefore relevant to investigate possible variables that promote its occurrence. This work intended to examine the predictive value of empathy, resilience and hurt over forgiveness. Three self-report measures - the Empathy Inventory; the Resilience Scale, and the Enright Forgiveness Inventory - were applied to 167 adults. 73,7% of the sample was composed by women. The mean age was 37 years (SD=12.66). Multiple regression tests were performed. It was found that empathy and resilience directly predicted forgiveness, while hurt predicted it inversely. Results suggest that hurt, resilience and empathy levels may have an influence on the forgiving experience.

Keywords : Forgiveness; Empathy; Resilience.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )