relation: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3110/
title: Forgiveness, health, and well-being: a review of evidence for emotional versus decisional forgiveness, dispositional forgivingness, and reduced unforgiveness
creator: Worthington, Everett L.
creator: Van Oyen Witvliet, Charlotte
creator: Pietrini, Pietro
creator: Miller, Andrea J.
subject: RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
subject: RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
description: The extant data linking forgiveness to health and well-being point to the role of emotional forgiveness, particularly when it becomes a pattern in dispositional forgivingness. Both are important antagonists to the negative affect of unforgiveness and agonists for positive affect. One key distinction emerging in the literature is between decisional and emotional forgiveness. Decisional forgiveness is a behavioral intention to resist an unforgiving stance and to respond differently toward a transgressor. Emotional forgiveness is the replacement of negative unforgiving emotions with positive other-oriented emotions. Emotional forgiveness involves psychophysiological changes, and it has more direct health and well-being consequences. While some benefits of forgiveness and forgivingness emerge merely because they reduce unforgiveness, some benefits appear to be more forgiveness specific. We review research on peripheral and central nervous system correlates of forgiveness, as well as existing interventions to promote forgiveness within divergent health settings. Finally, we propose a research agenda.
publisher: Springer
date: 2007
type: Article
type: PeerReviewed
identifier:   Worthington, Everett L. and Van Oyen Witvliet, Charlotte and Pietrini, Pietro and Miller, Andrea J.  Forgiveness, health, and well-being: a review of evidence for emotional versus decisional forgiveness, dispositional forgivingness, and reduced unforgiveness.  Journal of behavioral medicine, 30 (4).  pp. 291-302.  ISSN 0160-7715      (2007)  
relation: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10865-007-9105-8
relation: 10.1007/s10865-007-9105-8