An insight on factors conditioning self-forgiveness process: a dyadic perspective

Self-forgiveness is an emergent topic in research on interpersonal transgressions. Recent studies have demonstrated that self-forgiveness is determined by the offender’s perception of responsibility, feelings of guilt, and the amount of reparative behaviours he or she undertook. However, very little attention has been paid to the role of the victim’s responses, and the relationship between offender and victim, in self-forgiveness. In the present research, we took a dyadic perspective, and considered both the victim and offender perceptions of the offense. In an initial experimental scenario-based study, self-forgiveness depends strongly on the victim’s expression of forgiveness. Interestingly, this effect is more strongly pronounced in relationships of strong (vs. weak) commitment. The second study examined self-forgiveness in a sample of 135 couples. Self-forgiveness was examined in relation to real hurts committed by each partner against the other, by assessing perceptions of the offense both from the offender’s and victim’s perspective. SEM analyses demonstrated that the offender’s and the victim’s perceived severity of the transgression, the offender’s felt guilt, the victim’s level of forgiveness, and the offender’s reparative behaviour, in combination influence the transgressor’s self-forgiveness. Together, these findings highlight that self-forgiveness ultimately is the result of a dyadic process, whereby both the transgressing partner’s and the victimized partner’s perceptions of the offense affect self-forgiveness.