"Forgiveness for a Lifetime: An Examination of the Maintenance of Long-term Marriages"
Douglas Kelley, Ph.D., at Arizona State University, proposes to examine the application of forgiveness in the maintenance of long-term marriages. This will be the third phase of a program of forgiveness research which has examined the process of the communication of forgiveness and forgiveness as a turning point in intimate relationships. The sample group is composed of 500 couples at a retirement community who are currently involved in long-term marriages. Participants will be surveyed and given face-to-face interviews. The ability of forgiveness attitudes and usage will be examined to see if it is a predictor of stability and satisfaction within a relationship. Research References

"Decision-based Forgiveness in Marital & Intergenerational Family Relationships"
Frederick DiBlasio, Ph.D., at the University of Maryland, proposes to show that forgiveness is an act of the will, a choice to let go or to hold. He hypothesizes that forgiving is a decision-based procedure that empowers people and can promote harmony in relationships, peace within the self, and, for believing clients, serenity with God. This study will utilize parents and their adult children, and marital couples. Questionnaires, intervention groups, self-image, and a spiritual inventory will be encompassed by the study. Research References

"Forgiveness & Divorce: Breaking the Cycle of Pain"
Kenneth Pargament, Ph.D., at Bowling Green State University, proposes to evaluate a secular and a religiously-integrated forgiveness group therapy intervention for divorced individuals. Earlier versions of this have led to positive mental health gains among college women wronged in a romantic relationship. This study will be the first to examine whether a forgiveness intervention influences adjustment to divorce. In addition, this study will examine whether forgiveness can break a cycle of dysfunctional interpersonal relationships by transforming negative attitudes toward future romantic partners into more positive attitudes. Research References

"Betrayal, Forgiveness & Reconciliation in Close Relationships"
Caryl Rusbult, Ph.D., at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology when the studies were funded, is now at Free University, Amsterdam. She proposes to examine the role of commitment in promoting forgiveness and reconciliation in close relationships. She wants to increase our understanding of why, not how, individuals forgive others. Since failure to forgive can be harmful to a couple's well-being, she plans to concentrate her study on close relationships, including undergraduates who are involved in ongoing dating relationships and marital partners. Various methods will be used in this study, including laboratory investigations, a diary study of everyday acts of partner betrayal and victim forgiveness, a longitudinal study, and a self-report study. Research References

"The Role of Prosocial Behavior in the Prevention of Marital Distress & Disruption"
Thomas Bradbury, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and recipient of numerous awards for scholarship, will study two methods of teaching couples to forgive prior to marriage. He hopes to determine whether teaching couples to forgive each other after misunderstandings will prevent marital distress and divorce. Also, a second study is designed to look at the effects of self-reported empathy, support, acceptance, and forgiveness on the rates at which marriages change over three years. Research References

"Forgiveness in Psychotherapy"
Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D., of York University, proposes to validate a model of successful forgiveness events in therapy by comparing forgiveness with both non-forgiveness resolution and non-resolution events. This will test for the presence of key components of the process of resolution by forgiveness. Another test will determine whether forgiveness of significant others leads to enhanced therapeutic outcomes over and above the general benefits of a therapeutic relationship. The study will involve clients randomly assigned to treatments for resolving unresolved anger toward a significant other. Research References

"Psychological, Social & Situational Factors Contributing to Forgiveness in Close Relationships"
June Tangney, Ph.D., at George Mason University, proposes to draw on current theory and research to conduct a series of empirical studies addressing questions regarding both individual differences and situational factors that contribute to forgiveness. She will utilize adults of all ages, from varying socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, requiring no more than an 8th grade reading level. She will also use a questionnaire study of 200 young adults, their parents, and roommates to look at personal attributes that contribute to being forgiving. Research References

"The Emergence & Development Course of Forgiveness in Affect, Cognition and Behavior"
Susanne Denham, Ph.D., at George Mason University, proposes to study the first decade of life and how forgiveness develops during that time. She also will attempt to develop ways to foster forgiveness development. This study will include both a pilot/measurement development study and a short-term longitudinal study in emotional, social, and cognitive competence. Research References

"Scientific Studies on the Subject of Forgiveness"
E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Ph.D., in the Department of Biology at Georgia State University when the study was funded, is now at Great Ape Trust of Iowa. She proposes to look at the development of inter-individual patterns of interaction between youngsters and caregivers that result in teaching forgiveness as a behavioral strategy in response to perceived wrongs. She proposes to prove that behavioral patterns of forgiveness are formed in humans and apes via early infant rearing/caretaking interactions and that these inter-individual patterns manifest themselves in social structures that promote forgiveness to different degrees. Finally, she proposes that these things are not biologically determined but are established in the history of a species and are subject to change. Research References

"Challenges to Forgiveness in Marriage"
David Smith, Ph.D., at the University of Notre Dame, will involve the prisoner's dilemma experimental gaming protocol to study spousal blame and forgiveness. He wants to clarify the kinds of spousal behavior that foster forgiveness and establish some of their features. To further clarify the behaviors that foster forgiveness, he proposes to test the effectiveness of varying levels of behavioral reform using Altruism, Timely Slip, and Untimely Slip conditions.

"Is There a Role for Forgiveness & Spirituality in Coping with Combat Trauma?"
Ming Tsuang, M.D., Ph.D., at the Harvard Institute for Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, proposes to describe an empirical investigation of the role of forgiveness in coping with trauma associated with military service in Vietnam. The overall objective is to use unique methodology to draw general conclusions regarding the actual and potential roles of forgiveness for coping with combat and other traumatic, life-threatening experiences. This study will utilize the VET Registry to identify and interview 170 pairs of identical twins, one of which will have had combat exposure while the other twin will not have served in Vietnam. Research References

"Forgiveness in Family Relationships"
Frank Fincham, Ph.D., one of the most widely published scholars in psychology and family studies, at time of funding was at the University of Wales, Cardiff, but is now at Florida State University. He will study forgiveness in the family, namely in marriage relationships and in parent-child relationships. Fincham brings a perspective to the study of forgiveness that emphasizes the way people think about their experiences. He will study the ways those thoughts are seen, expressed, and implemented within the family. This study uses both field and laboratory research to show the need for measures of forgiveness, data on the origins of forgiveness, longitudinal data addressing causal relationships among forgiveness, relationship health, individual characteristics, and mental health. Research References

"Forgiveness in Families"
Ivan Miller, Ph.D., at Rhode Island Hospital, proposes to identify situations among family members that lead to forgiveness and concentrate on the relationship between forgiveness and functioning in the family. The goal is to have an understanding of the role of forgiveness in family life. To address this goal, he will study 200 families by conducting interviews and giving out questionnaires regarding their experiences with their family. This will determine stressful life events and situations which have led to conflict and stress among family members. Research References

"The Causes & Effects of Forgiveness: A Twin Family Study"
Lindon Eaves, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, will study whether religion and forgiveness protect someone against drug use, as well as whether genetics and psychological factors play a part in using drugs and not being forgiving. To help with this study, questionnaire studies will be mailed to adolescent twins and their parents, and adult twins with their spouses and children. Research References

"Healing, Forgiveness, & Reconciliation in Rwanda"
Ervin Staub, Ph.D., in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is part of the Trauma, Research, Education, and Training Institute. He and a team of researchers seek to investigate whether-and if so, how-forgiveness can possibly occur in Rwanda. He will constitute groups of Hutus, of Tutsis, and of mixtures of the tribes. People who did not directly participate in the massacres are included so that victims and families of those killed can more easily come to forgive members of the other tribe. Research References