| The Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI) was examined in three cultures, U.S.A., Korea, and Taiwan, to determine whether items have different discriminating power across cultures. In Study 1,200 college students and their same-gender parents (N = 400) in the U.S.A. and an equal number in Korea and Taiwan were given the EFI. In Study 2, twenty bilingual Korean adults were interviewed to find out what they think about three EFI items that had different discriminating power across cultures. In Study 2, thirty-three Korean college students and their same-gender parents (N = 66) and fifty-six U.S. college students and their same-gender parents (N = 112) were administered the EFI, Yamaguchi's Collectivism Scale, Kanjin-shuji (Relatedness) Scale, and the Face Maintenance Scale. Three EFI items found to have different discriminating power in the EFI data sets of Study 1 showed a similar pattern in the Korean data set of Study 2. In both Study 1 and 2, findings of the factor analysis support the design of the EFI. The EFI operated in the same way in terms of item difficulty both in Study 1 and 2.; Korean participants scored lower on the EFI than U.S. participants both in Study 1 and Study 2, with or without the above three EFI items. The mean differences in the EFI scores between the U.S.A. and Korea are discussed. Korean participants were more collectivistic and concerned with saving their own face than the U.S. participants. Regression analyses showed that Relatedness significantly predicts the U.S. participants' forgiveness, while Other-face saving significantly predicts the Korean participants' forgiveness. The EFI appears to be a reliable and valid measure of forgiveness across U.S. and Korea samples both in Study 1 and 2. This study contributed to a procedure for developing cross-cultural psychological measurements and norms for Asians using the EFI. Further research on cross cultural psychology including Taiwanese participants is recommended. |
