FORGIVENESS AS A PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC GOAL WITH ELDERLY FEMALES

A psychotherapeutic intervention with forgiveness as the goal was implemented with 24 elderly females. The client's goal was to forgive one person who had inflicted considerable psychological hurt, as judged by the client. The subjects were randomly assigned to a forgiveness condition and a control group. The forgiveness group followed a treatment model based on Enright et al. (1991). Dependent variables included two forgiveness scales, a self-esteem inventory, a psychological depression scale, and a state-trait anxiety scale. Following the eight week intervention, the experimental group showed significantly higher forgiveness profiles at posttest compared with the control group. Both groups significantly decreased from pretest to posttest on psychological depression and trait anxiety. Implications for forgiveness counseling are discussed.