Development and validation of a measure of willingness to forgive

Forgiveness contributes to coping with interpersonal hurts and transgressions. Definitions and measures of the construct are provided. The development and validation of a new, scenario-based scale for measuring willingness to forgive is described. A conceptual distinction is proposed between (a) willingness to forgive a transgressor who regrets his behavior, and (b) willingness to forgive a transgressor who does not regret his fault. Data from five studies with a total sample of 1,824 participants affirm the psychometric quality of the scale and support the conceptual distinction of the construct with regard to the transgressor's behavior (repentance versus nonrepentance). Evidence on the construct validity of the scale was obtained from its correlation with measures for theoretically related and unrelated constructs, i.e., trait anger, attention to and clarity of one's own and other's feelings, positive and negative affectivity, the five personality factors, and social desirability. The scale converges well with other measures of the same construct.