| This study examined how adolescents understand and define forgiveness. Additionally, the effects of gender and ego development on understanding of forgiveness were explored. It was hypothesized that adolescents would understand forgiveness as reconciliation, forgetting, justification, and legal mercy more than as overcoming resentment, a definition of forgiveness commonly given by many philosophers, theologians, and psychologists. Additional hypotheses were that gender and level of ego development would relate to definitions of forgiveness offered by adolescents. A structured interview assessed understanding of forgiveness, and the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (SCT) assessed ego development levels. More than half the adolescents in this sample defined forgiveness as reconciliation, forgetting, or justification instead of overcoming resentment. Additionally, definition of forgiveness was not associated with gender, verbal intelligence, ego development, or age, at least in the age range studied. Girls demonstrated a self aware level of ego development more than boys and boys showed a self protective level more than girls. The study points out the need for more research that examines how adults and adolescents understand forgiveness. |
