DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/VM3V-F941
Defense Date
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Counseling Psychology
First Advisor
Everett Jr Worthington
Abstract
People agree that forgiveness is a virtue in essentially all countries. However, different cultures have different ideas about how willing one should forgive and under what circumstances. Although the study occurred in the USA, I recruited both foreign-extraction and Virginia born-and-raised female college students (N=102) to participate a six-hour REACH forgiveness intervention, promoting their forgiveness through psychoeducational groups. In my thesis, I investigated whether students of foreign extraction and Virginia-born students would respond similarly to the intervention. I operationalized culture in two ways—by country and by individual self-reported self-construal. I measured forgiveness using two measures—decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness. I found that the six-hour REACH forgiveness intervention enhanced participants’ forgiveness regardless of their culture background. But foreign students who were functioning in a US university did not respond differently than Virginia-born students. The similar findings also applied to participants who perceived themselves differently in Collectivism and Individualism.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
February 2013