The Impact Of Instrumental And Emotional Relationships On Interpersonal Forgiveness

In the context of interpersonal conflict,as a positive psychological reaction to interpersonal injuries,forgiveness can help victims eliminate anger,reduce pain and maintain the individual's physical and mental health.Forgiveness,a characteristic of personality,is formed in interpersonal contact and is directly affected by interpersonal relationships.Studying the influence of different types of interpersonal relationships on forgiveness is an important way to understand the formation of forgiveness and the change mechanism thereof.Forgiveness can be divided into forgiveness to oneself and forgiveness to others,namely,self-forgiveness and interpersonal forgiveness.The forgiveness involved in this paper mainly refers to interpersonal forgiveness.Huang Guangguo,Hu Xianjin et al.classify interpersonal relationships into expressive relationships,instrumental relationships and mixed relationships from the perspectives of close and utility.According to such classification,the research explores the influences of expressive relationships and instrumental relationships on interpersonal forgiveness from two aspects of "personal relation" and "benefit",where close is used as the primary indicator of expressive relationships research,whereas relationship utility is used as the primary indicator of instrumental relationships research.This paper is divided into three studies.Study 1 aims to tease out the influences of the two interpersonal relationships on interpersonal forgiveness respectively,where interpersonal relationship utility is researched by means of experiments.The goal of Study2 is to delve into the underlying mechanisms by which the two interpersonal relationships affect interpersonal forgiveness,where interpersonal relationship utility is measured via questionnaires.Study 3 aims to comprehensively explore the influence of two interpersonal relationships on interpersonal forgiveness.Study 1 is divided into two sub-studies.The purpose of Study 1a is to probe into the influence of instrumental relationships on interpersonal forgiveness,i.e.,the influence of interpersonal relationship utility on interpersonal forgiveness.The results show that: the utility of interpersonal relationship has a significant impact on interpersonal forgiveness,and the levels of interpersonal forgiveness drop from high-utility group,control group to low-utility group.Study 1b aims at exploring the influence of expressive relationships on interpersonal forgiveness,i.e.,the influence of close on interpersonal forgiveness.The results show that: close positively predicts interpersonal forgiveness,that is,the higher the close,the higher the level of interpersonal forgiveness.Study 2 is divided into two sub-studies.The purpose of Study 2a is to probe into the underlying mechanism by which interpersonal relationship utility affects interpersonal forgiveness.The results show that: interpersonal relationship utility positively predicts interpersonal forgiveness,and commitments mediate the influence of interpersonal relationship utility on interpersonal forgiveness.Study 2b aims at exploring the underlying mechanism by which close affects interpersonal forgiveness.The results show that: close positively predicts interpersonal forgiveness,and commitments mediate the influence of close on interpersonal forgiveness.Study 3 is intended to inquiry into the relationship between the influences of expressive relationships and instrumental relationships on interpersonal forgiveness.It turns out that:interpersonal relationship utility promotes the improvement on the level of interpersonal forgiveness through strengthening close,that is,close mediates the influence of interpersonal relationship utility on interpersonal forgiveness.According to research results,the conclusions of the research are as follows:(1)Interpersonal relationship utility positively predicts interpersonal forgiveness,that is,the higher the interpersonal relationship utility,the higher the level of interpersonal forgiveness;(2)Close positively predicts interpersonal forgiveness,that is,the higher the close,the higher the level of interpersonal forgiveness;(3)Commitments fully mediate the influence of interpersonal relationship utility on interpersonal forgiveness;(4)Commitments fully mediate the influence of close on interpersonal forgiveness;and(5)The relationship between the influences of the two interpersonal relationships on interpersonal forgiveness is that close fully mediates the influence of interpersonal relationship utility on interpersonal forgiveness.