The Characteristics And Trajectories Of Forgiveness Among Interpersonal Transgression Victims In Campus

The need for belonging is an intrinsic desire for humans(Butler,Lee,& Gross,2007).However,it seems unavoidable that people will offend each other.While in some instances,an individual's responses can initiate the destruction of a relationship—such as by taking revenge or avoiding the transgressor,it is possible that the harmed party will forgive the transgressor to restore their interpersonal harmony.Forgiveness was conceptualized as both a dynamic,state-like process and as an individual disposition(Berry,Worthington,Parrott,O'Conner,& Wade,2001;Fehr,Gelfand,& Nag,2010).As the present study focuses on victims' response to a specific interpersonal transgression,we used the former conceptualization.The most commonly used definition of interpersonal forgiveness has been advocated by Mccullough and his colleagues who offered a motivational perspective on interpersonal transgression and defined forgiveness as ?intra-individual,prosocial change toward a transgressor that is situated within a specific interpersonal context?;more specifically,the victim becomes less motivated by avoidance and revenge and more motivated by benevolence(Mc Cullough,Worthington,& Rachal,1997).As it goes ?time heals all wounds?,then what are the characteristics of transgression victms' forgiveness over time? Mc Cullough(2003)found that victims experience a significant decline in avoidance and revenge motivations,whereas benevolence motivations do not appear to increase;Some researchers combined these three subscales into a single unidimensional measure(Mccullough et al.,2010,2014;Toussaint,Shields,& Slavich,2016;Wenzel,Turner,& Okimoto)and found forgiveness increases linearly.By contrast,Pronk and his colleagues measured forgiveness with a benevolence subscale and found that people who performed poorly on the executive functioning task.Their forgiveness followed a quadratic curve(Pronk,Karremans,Overbeek,Vermulst,& Wigboldus,2010).Then,how forgiveness unfolds when undergraduates encounter transgression in collective culture? In an individualistic society,where people privilege the self,forgiveness is associated more with release from guilt or self-enhancement.By contrast,in collective society preserving harmonious in interpersonal relationships is highly valued.Since forgiveness is quite influenced by culture,the forgiveness may show different trends in collective society.So,this research aims to study how forgiveness unfolds with time in a sample from a collective culture by conducting a cross-sectional study and longitudinal study.318 university undergraduates who had been hurt by their significant others in the last 10 days were recruited and completed weekly assessments for five weeks.Undergraduates from four Chinese universities who had been recruited over 1.5 years from psychology courses.To be eligible for the study,participants had to meet the following criteria:(a)had been wronged by an intimate other within the last two weeks,and(b)the hurt was severe(perceived severity score>2).By way of cross-sectional study and a longitudinal study,based on variable-centered and individual-center perspectives,this paper examines the characteristics of forgiveness and the trajectories of interpersonal transgression victims in campus.A total of 6 studies were included,of which the cross-sectional survey included 2 studies and the longitudinal follow-up included 4 studies.Cross-sectional survey concludes 2 studies which explored the characteristics of victims' forgiveness.In study 1,318 undergraduates who were hurt by intimate others in 10 days were recruited from 4957 sample.Their basic status and characteristics of forgiveness at the T1 were discussed.The results showed the prevalence of interpersonal offense on campus was 8.35%.The transgressors were friends,roommates,lovers,and parents.The level of victims' forgiveness and their sub-dimensions were not significantly different in terms of gender,religion,or nationality.Study 2 examines how the severity of offenses affects the forgiveness of offended college students and whether this effect was moderated by relationship closeness.The results showed the transgression severity does not have a direct effect on forgiveness.It predicts forgiveness indirectly through the mediating role of rumination.There is no moderating effect on the degree of interpersonal closeness between the two.Judging from the specific dimensions of forgiveness,the transgression severity does not have a direct effect on the revenge motives.It indirectly predicts revenge motivation through the mediating role of meditation.There is no moderating effect on interpersonal closeness;transgression severity did not have direct effect on avoidance motive.It indirectly predicts the avoidance motive through the mediation of rumination.Relationship closeness moderating relationships between rumination and avoidance.Transgression severity and rumination have no significant effect on benevolence motivation.Longitudinal studies were carried out with variable-centered and individual-centered perspectives examined the victims' trajectories of forgiveness within 5 weeks.Variable-centered longitudinal studies included Study 3 and Study 4.The unconditional latent growth curve model(LGM)was employed in Study 3 to study how forgiveness unfolds with time and gender difference was checked.The results showed the negative dimensions of forgiveness(avoidance and revenge motivations)decreased linearly over time,whereas the positive dimensions(benevolence motivation)did not increase significantly over time.Besides,there is no significant difference in the intercept and slope of forgiveness between male and female victims;in terms of the specific dimensions of forgiveness,there is significant gender difference in the initial level of revenge motivation,but not in slope of revenge.There is a significant gender difference in the intercept and slope of avoidance motivation;there is no significant gender difference in the initial level and rate of change of benevolence motivation.The conditional latent growth curve model(LGM)was employed in Study 4 to study whether rumination at a given testing point could reduce victims' forgiveness trend at that time.The results showed rumination at given testing point could reduce victims' forgiveness trend at that time;in terms of the specific dimensions of forgiveness,Rumination at given testing point could increase victims' avoidance and revenge motivation,but the effect was not significant at T5 point.Individual-centered longitudinal studies included Study 5 and Study 6.Heterogeneity of 318 undergraduates forgiveness trajectories and its predictive factors was examined.Study 5 used latent growth mixed model(GMM)to investigate the subgroup classification and number distribution of victims' trajectories.The trajectories of victims' revenge motivation were divided into three types.The percentages of each type of people were: low revenge group(low initial level and decline)accounted for 82.2%,middle revenge group(high initial level and decline)accounted for 15.0%,The high revenge group(high initial level and rise)accounted for 2.5%;the trajectory of avoidance motivation conclude two types,and the percentage of each type of people was: low avoidance group(low initial level and decline)accounted for 94.8%,high avoidance group(initial level and High rise)accounted for 5.2%;the trajectories motivation of benevolence was divided into three types.The percentage of each type of people was: Low benevolence group(low initial level and declined)accounted for 37.1%,middle benevolence group(high initial level and declined)accounted for 57.2 %,high benevolence group(low initial rise group)accounted for 5.7%.Study 6 explored the prediction factors of individual forgiveness within subgroups.The main findings of this dissertation were as follows: The three subgroups of the revenge motivation trajectory were not significantly different in terms of gender and ethnicity,but there were significant differences in the types of the transgressor.High revenge group contained 4 students,they suffered offenses from a friend and three roommates.There were significant differences in offensive severity between the three subgroups.The severity of the offense in the medium revenge group was significantly higher than that in the other two groups.There was a significant difference in the degree of relationship intimacy,and the intimacy of the low retaliation group was significantly higher than that of the other two groups.There was no significant difference in gender,ethnicity,offender type,offense severity,and intimacy between the two subgroups of avoidance motivation.Three subgroups of benevolence motivation were not significantly different in terms of gender and ethnicity,but there were significant differences in the types of transgressor.There were 15 victims in high benevolence group,of which 7 were hurt by lovers,6 was hurt by friends,and 1 was hurt by parents,1 was hurt by roommates.As for the level of transgressor severity,high benevolence group was significantly higher than the other two groups;in terms of relationship closeness,the high benevolence group and medium benevolence group were significantly higher than those in the low benevolence group.The above conclusions can theoretically enrich research results in the field of interpersonal communication,as well as cross-cultural evidence,and have practical implications for schools to carry out mental health education and psychological crisis prevention and intervention.