Expanding research on self-forgiveness predictors toward a dyadic perspective: the role of interpersonal forgiveness by the victim.

Self-forgiveness is a coping strategy through which the offender overcomes the self-related negative thoughts and feelings caused by the wrongdoing committed. Research investigating predictors of self-forgiveness for interpersonal transgressions has traditionally assumed an individual perspective and examined those responses by the offender which facilitate (or impede) forgiving oneself (e.g., perceived offence severity, guilt feelings, reparative behaviors,…). Less investigated is the role that the victim’s response to the wrongdoing as well as the relationship between the offender and the victim have in self-forgiveness process. Even when the victim’s response to the wrongdoing has been explored as a possible precursor of self-forgiveness, like in studies examining interpersonal forgiveness by the victim, it has not been considered in itself, but as perceived by the offender. Moving toward a dyadic orientation to self-forgiveness, in which the victim-offender dyad is considered as the primary unit of interest, this chapter presents two empirical studies aimed at verifying whether self-forgiveness for a transgression is predicted by the victim’s reactions as well. Study 1 showed that both interpersonal forgiveness by the victim and reparative behaviors by the offender positively affected self-forgiveness in a scenario-based design carried out on 205 university students. Interestingly, this effect emerged only for subjects involved in a close relationship. Study 2 investigated real transgressions in a sample of 128 cohabiting couples and showed that self-forgiveness was predicted by responses to transgressions by both the offender (his/her perceived offence severity, guilt feelings, and reparative behaviors) and the victim (his/herher/his perceived offence severity and interpersonal forgiveness). The chapter discusses these results in terms of their implication for conceptualizing self-forgiveness as a social process