The communication of forgiveness

Serial Argument Goals and Conflict Strategies: A Comparison between Romantic Partners and Family Members

“…The obligatory nature of a closed family relationship suggests that positively valenced serial argument goals might not be primary for family members. Indeed, Kelley (1998) identified relationship type as an important preliminary component in the forgiveness process, which, like serial arguing, involves harmful behaviors, negative psychological states, and attempts at resolution. He specifically found that family members were less likely than expected to grant forgiveness for love and relationship restoration motivations; each reflects the positive relational expression serial argument goal.…”

“…As relationship type is an important antecedent or organizing device that can impact how individuals cognitively and communicatively approach interaction (e.g., Kellermann & Palomares, 2004;Kelley, 1998), this study compares romantic and family relationships in terms of the important features of serial argument goal importance (Bevan, Hale, & Williams, 2004) and conflict strategy usage (Bevan et al, 2007) through the lens of Dyadic Power Theory (DPT; Dunbar, 2004).…”

Evidence for a distinct forgiveness prototype: Convergent and discriminant validity

“…However, this narrative does illustrate the type of cognitive effort that takes place as motivations are transformed from avoidance to conciliation. In addition, this narrative also illustrates how forgiveness may be indirectly, or implicitly expressed (Kelley, 1998). In this example the participant simply changed her behavior to a pre-transgression state as a means of communicating forgiveness.…”

“…There are several studies that have examined participants' responses to unstructured, open-ended questionnaires and interviews about forgiveness (e.g., Kelley, 1998;Younger, Piferi, Jobe, & Lawler, 2004;Zechmeister & Romero, 2002). Each of these studies has focused on slightly different aspects of laypersons' motivations for (or against) forgiveness and explored possible common understandings of what it means to forgive someone.…”

“…In general, these studies have documented a variety of factors that contribute to similarities in lay perspectives of forgiveness but have not identified any structure associated with these forgiveness dimensions or even if these factors are distinct to forgiveness. One of the first studies of this sort by Kelley (1998), assessed laypersons' motivations and strategies in forgiveness expression by analyzing written narratives of participants' experiences of granting forgiveness, receiving forgiveness, and needing forgiveness. The results indicated that for both forgiveness-seeking and forgiveness-granting narratives, 33% and 43% of the participants respectively reported indirect methods of forgiveness communication, including; use of humor, diminishing the perceived effect of the infraction, nonverbal displays of emotion, acceptance, and understanding.…”