CAUSES OF DISPOSITIONAL FORGIVENESS (OF SELF, OTHERS AND SITUATIONS)
CAUSES OF DISPOSITIONAL FORGIVENESS (OF SELF, OTHERS AND SITUATIONS)

Summary/Abstract: The present study aims to analyze the influence of some factors such as gender, age, demographic data on region of residence (urban versus rural residence) and Christian confession of faith (Orthodox versus Catholic) determines the readiness to forgive among the Romanian population. We focused on dispositional forgiveness (the general tendency to be forgiving) taking into consideration three dimensions of forgiveness: Forgiveness of Others, Forgiveness of Self and Forgiveness of Situations, negative uncontrollable circumstance. The study was conducted on a group of subjects consisting of 840 participants who filled in the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS; Thompson et al., 2005). Our results showed that there was an influence the investigated factors on the disposition of forgiveness. Therefore, results indicate that women have a more permissive attitude towards themselves and their own mistakes than men. Urban participants are more forgiving than rural participants. Individuals who are in a prolonged adolescence (between 20 and 24 years old) are more forgiving. The tendency to forgive others and to forgive the negative circumstances is significantly bigger among orthodox participants. These findings emphasize the importance of age and gender when investigating forgiveness.

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