El papel de la religiosidad/espiritualidad en el perdón

Abstract

Definitions of forgiveness and its various forms of conceptualisation differ among experts (Enright & Coyle, 1998; McCullough, 2000; Thompson et al., 2000; Worthington & Wade, 1999), the predominant belief considers it is of either unilateral nature (Enright, 1994), or negotiated (Andrews, 2000), also that unforgivable offenses exist and that not everybody has the right to forgive (Cohen et al., 2006). Studies suggest that conceptualisation has influence on the level of forgiveness (Prieto et al., 2013) and sometimes social desirability has influence too. (Collier et al., 2010; Fox & Thomas, 2008; Gisi & D´Amato, 2000). Forgiveness is nuclear for christianism (McCullough et al., 2000), religion with strong roots in Spain. Religiousness and spirituality are currently concepts which can be considered equivalent in psychology (Pargament et al., 2013) and its adequate measurement is important (Hill, 2013). There are discrepancies regarding the relationship between forgiveness and religiousness (Tsang, McCullough & Hoyt, 2005) and some suggest that the key is in religiousness/spirituality. (Fox & Thomas, 2008; Macaskill, 2005, 2007; Mullet, 2003; Tsang et al., 2005). It is also important to know the effect of forgiveness on psychological wellbeing (Macaskill, 2012; Toussaint & Friedman, 2009) as well as the know as “dark side” of forgiveness (McNulty, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2016). There is also evidence of the influence of religiousness/spirituality on the relationship between forgiveness and psychological wellbeing (Lawler- Row, 2010; Peterson, 2015; Worthingthon, Griffin, Toussaint, Nonterah, Utsey & Garthe, 2016). Knowing the effect that religousness/spirituality has on certain beliefs associated to the conceptualisation of forgiveness and social desirability, and how they influence on forgiveness and psychological wellbeing of people (main variables of this study) will contribute to the development of the technical knowledge of forgiveness. In accordance with all this, the main objective is to understand the role of religiousness/spirituality on these variables, how they articulate on a theoretical level and their relationship with psychological wellbeing. Two studies where done for this. The first study had two parts: study with a pilot sample and study with the final sample. In the pilot sample an Exploratory Factorial Analysis of the Implication and religious compromise scale and the Religious scale, as well as an internal consistency analysis were done. As a result of these, adequate factorial validity was found and internal consistency for both scales and the Religious scale was chosen for the study given that it distinguishes three levels of R/S in the final result. The second part of the first study was the Confirmatory Factorial Analysis of the mentioned scale, which showed an adequate adjustment as well as adequate internal consistency. In the second study which relates R/S and forgiveness, the research looked to determine the differences between forgiveness and associated variables depending on the level of R/S (high, medium and low), depending on if the participant is religious of consecrated life or not, through ANOVA and t-Student, and also the influence of R/S on psychological wellbeing through structural equation modeling was studied. An acceptable adjustment for the model distinguishing among the three levels of R/S was found. The low R/S variant of the model is the one which adjusted the most to what was expected. A different mediation patron was distinguished between beliefs and wellbeing depending on the level of R/S: for high R/S forgiveness is shown as an answer, for low R/S motivation and disposition, and for medium R/S forgiveness is shown as answer and motivation. The belief in forgiveness as unilateral is common among the three variables. The motivational level of forgiveness is related with psychological wellbeing in its three options: benevolence, avoidance and revenge. Conclusions: The level of R/S has a differential influence on forgiveness and psychological wellbeing, for this reason it is proposed to study the related factors in depth. Also divulge among psychology professionals the importance of considering the patients level of R/S and incorporate the R/S in intervention programs, and finally transmit the differences in conceptualisation of forgiveness to priests and religious persons who are involved in spiritual accompaniment in order to integrate the psychological knowledge and forgiveness of R/S adequately in the religious/spiritual field.