An attempt to enrich marriage and prevent problems during the course of early marriage relationships through forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiving is a motivational transformation that inclines people to inhibit relationship-destructive responses and to behave constructively toward someone who has behaved destructively toward them. A model of forgiveness has been described by M.McCullough and E. Worthington as based on the hypothesis that people forgive others to the extent that they experience empathy for them. Two studies investigated the empathy model of forgiveness. In study 1, the authors developed measures of empathy and forgiveness. The authors found evidence consistent with the hypothesis that a) the relationship between receiving an apology from and forgiving one's offender is a function of increased empathy for the offender and b) that forgiving is uniquely related to conciliatory behavior and avoidance behavior toward the offending partner. In study 2, the authors conducted an intervention in which empathy was manipulated to examine the empathy-forgiving relationship more closely. Results generally supported the conceptualization of forgiving as a motivational phenomenon and the empathy-forgiving link.
The specific aims of this study are 1) to determine relationships among forgiveness, the variables that supposedly effect forgiveness, love and relationship variables, and physical and mental health variables. 2) to examine effectiveness of strong forgiveness induction based on the pyramid model of forgiveness (aimed at prevention of relationship difficulties) relative to a marital enrichment intervention (strategic hope-focused relationship enrichment) and to a repeated-retest control. 3) To examine psychological processes underlying responses to forgiveness-inducing interventions with newly married partners. Both interventions have been supported by previous research establishing them as effective and as resulting in no adverse effects on individuals or relationships. The proposed project is aimed at further developing the pyramid model of forgiveness into a stronger alternative to the models already described. In this study the focus will be on pyramid-model-based intervention for forgiveness in new marriages. This three year study of forgiveness will use ten couples in a pilot project to refine the forgiveness treatment and measure initial effects. In the main study, the primary investigator will randomly assign 210 couples to one of three interventions. The three groups are forgiveness, HOPE-focused marital enrichment, and repeated retests with minimal feedback ( control group). Couples will complete several questionnaires on marriage, forgiveness, concomitants of forgiveness, religion and physical and mental health. They will provide a salivary cortisol sample, and they will be videotaped discussing marital issues at meetings. Interventions will involve three three-hour meetings with a couple-consultant.
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