A postconflict response: Intergroup forgiveness and its social psychological predictors

This thesis aims to highlight the importance of the psychological dimension in conflict resolution between rival groups. It acknowledges' past intergroup wrongdoings as an obstacle to conflict resolution and focuses on intergroup forgiveness as a possible, but not as the sole, response to such wrongdoings. A research agenda is set out to establish the psychological phenomenon of intergroup forgiveness, its predictors and their interrelationships in two different field settings - between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland, and between the supporters and opponents 'ofPinochet's regime. More specifically, across six survey studies, using experimental, cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, the concept of intergroup forgiveness has been validated and the roles of some classic and novel social psychological variables (identification, trust, empathy, 'competitive yictimhood', 'subjective evaluation of past violence' arid reconciliation) in forgiveness examined. These studies provided convergent crosscultural evidence in support of the above vanables as important correlates of forgiveness. In order to explore the structural interrelationships of these correlates and forgiveness, a Reconciliation Orientation Model (ROM) was developed and empirically validated. Moreover, a final study examined the longitudinal relationship between forgiveness and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, revealing that forgiveness predicted reconciliation intentions overtime. Finally, in view of the present findings, I discuss the important theoretical and practical contributions ofthis thesis and explore new avenues for developing this line of research in the future.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo