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Intrapersonal and interpersonal facilitators of forgiveness following spousal infidelity: A stress and coping perspective
Author(s) -
Chi Peilian,
Tang Yixin,
Worthington Everett L.,
Chan Cecilia L. W.,
Lam Debbie O. B.,
Lin Xiuyun
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22825
Subject(s) - forgiveness , intrapersonal communication , psychology , interpersonal communication , coping (psychology) , empathy , social psychology , attribution , clinical psychology
Objective Forgiveness includes processes that involve a decision to stop bitterness and thoughts of revenge (i.e., decisional forgiveness), which further motivates the forgiver towards the restoration of positive emotions (i.e., emotional forgiveness). Using stress and coping framework, this study investigated intrapersonal and interpersonal facilitators of decisional and emotional forgiveness in a Chinese marital context. Method Participants were 154 respondents who had experienced or were experiencing spousal infidelity. Results Solidarity‐oriented personality and perceived partner's reconciliation motivation facilitated benign attributions and empathy, then facilitated higher levels of decisional forgiveness, which promoted emotional forgiveness. Strength of marital bond before the infidelity directly predicted higher levels of emotional forgiveness. Conclusions Our findings provide evidence for the differentiated decisional and emotional forgiveness processes after spousal infidelity and delineate different coping mechanism that triggers them, thus lending culturally appropriate evidence for clinicians who work with clients facing spousal infidelity.