Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/133210
Type: Thesis
Title: Exploring the Relationship Between Reputational Credit, Severity of a Transgression, Deservingness of Forgiveness and Forgiveness
Author: Kalyvas, Alexia
Issue Date: 2021
School/Discipline: School of Psychology
Abstract: The act of forgiving is found to be driven by perceptions and motivations. That is, when an individual chooses to forgive, their choice is driven by a pro-social, benevolent response to a transgression (McCullough, Rachal, Sandage, Worthington, Brown & Hight, 1998). While the theoretical explanations for the process of forgiveness are fruitful in recent literature, empirical evidence on the underlying decision of why people deserve forgiveness and how victims come to the decision to forgive is still sparse in research. As such, the current study hypothesises that reputational credit is a predicting factor of deservingness of forgiveness, and that severity of a transgression moderates the relationship. Participants (N = 111) were asked to consider a close relationship with a person of whom they were still in contact with and evaluate this relationship using measures of reputational credit. Participants were then asked to reflect on a time where the person had hurt or upset them, and outcomes relating to perceived deservingness and executed forgiveness were measured. Results found a significant positive relationship between reputational credit and deservingness of forgiveness and the interaction effect of severity was approaching significance in a negative direction. Additional analyses were run to assess the interaction between reputational credit and transgression severity when forgiveness was the outcome variable, and a similar pattern of results were found for high levels of reputational credit. However, when reputational credit was low, incongruencies were identified between how transgression severity impacted deservingness of forgiveness and forgiveness.
Dissertation Note: Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2021
Keywords: Honours; Psychology
Description: This item is only available electronically.
Provenance: This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exceptions. If you are the author of this thesis and do not wish it to be made publicly available, or you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals
Appears in Collections:School of Psychology

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
KalyvasA_2021_Hons.pdf489.63 kBAdobe PDFView/Open


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.