Assessing Forgiveness: Development of a Brief, Broadly Applicable Self-report Measure
| dc.contributor.author | Law, Mary Kate | en |
| dc.contributor.committeechair | Axsom, Danny K. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Clum, George A. Jr. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Dunsmore, Julie C. | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Psychology | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-03-14T21:36:10Z | en |
| dc.date.adate | 2009-06-11 | en |
| dc.date.available | 2014-03-14T21:36:10Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2009-05-01 | en |
| dc.date.rdate | 2009-06-11 | en |
| dc.date.sdate | 2009-05-14 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Forgiveness is a construct that has captured the interest of researchers and practitioners across various fields, from philosophy to biology; however, defining and measuring forgiveness has been a challenge because of its complex nature. By drawing on relationships discovered in past studies, reviewing definitions across disciplines, and noting weaknesses in current forgiveness measures, the task of developing a broadly applicable forgiveness measure with strong theoretical and psychometric roots resulted in the creation of the General Measure of Forgiveness (GMF). The GMF is a brief, Likert response questionnaire that is appropriate for both relationship and non-relationship transgressions; heretofore, there has not been an established measure for non-relationship trangressions. This study was an initial investigation into the psychometric properties of the GMF. In an online design, college participants (n=343) were administered the GMF along with an established interpersonal measure of forgiveness, the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI: Enright & Rique, 2004), and other measures of theoretically related and unrelated constructs. For the forgiveness measures, participants completed the GMF and EFI (order counterbalanced) in response to the same self-generated relationship transgression, then completed the GMF in response to a self-generated non-relationship transgression. Results supported the internal consistency of the GMF (Cronbach's alphas of .93 for both relationship and non-relationship forgiveness) and an exploratory factor analysis identified a primary factor accounting for about 30% of the total item variance. Convergent and discriminant validity analyses resulted in largely predicted relationships (e.g., r = .81 for GMFrelationship and EFI; r = .78 for GMFnon-relationship and a single-item assessment of forgiveness; r = -.26 for GMFrelationship and anger and aggression). These results are encouraging as use of the GMF could open new areas of research in non-relationship forgiveness and enhance research and application of relationship forgiveness. Specifically, the GMF holds promise for improving research by providing a brief, non-proprietary, and broadly applicable measure of forgiveness. Broadly, the study suggests that a general measure of forgiveness is feasible. | en |
| dc.description.degree | Master of Science | en |
| dc.identifier.other | etd-05142009-150813 | en |
| dc.identifier.sourceurl | http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05142009-150813/ | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42653 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
| dc.relation.haspart | Thesis_Complete_1_2[1].pdf | en |
| dc.relation.haspart | approval_letter[1].pdf | en |
| dc.rights | In Copyright | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | forgiveness | en |
| dc.subject | psychometrics | en |
| dc.subject | relationship transgression | en |
| dc.subject | interpersonal forgiveness | en |
| dc.subject | non-relationship transgression | en |
| dc.subject | non-relationship forgiveness | en |
| dc.title | Assessing Forgiveness: Development of a Brief, Broadly Applicable Self-report Measure | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Psychology | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
| thesis.degree.level | masters | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Science | en |