Experiências de perdão interpessoal e fatores facilitadores de sua ocorrência

Abstract

The interpersonal forgiveness is considered a multidimensional phenomenon whereby the initial negative responses - affective, cognitive and behavioral of a victim toward an offender are transformed into others more positive. Thus, forgiveness serves as one of the possible ways to overcome grief. The literature points to several physical, psychological and social benefits associated with its occurrence, such as better quality of sleep, less anxiety and more lasting relationships. Although it is seen as something that is good for the individual and for relations, its occurrence is not easy and usually takes time. Given the benefits, it is considered important to know facilitating factors of its promotion. Identifying such factors is the general objective of this thesis. For this, four studies were performed. The first was a systematic literature review, in which we investigated the tools used to foster forgiveness in therapeutic interventions. From the descriptors "forgiveness", "intervention" and "therapy", the search was made in Pepsic, Lilacs, PubMed and PsycInfo bases. The sample was composed of 20 articles which have been entirely read for the formation of analysis dimensions. In the second study, we designed a questionnaire for the interviews about spontaneous experiences of forgiveness. 20 participants comprised the sample. The interviews were analyzed following content analysis procedures. The third study aimed to expand the understanding about the contribution of factors identified in the second study. So, participants were asked to rank the factors according to their importance for forgiveness, identifying the five most relevant. It was made the sum of the values assigned by participants to each factor. 167 adults participated answering a prepared questionnaire for this study. The fourth study aimed to determine the predictive value of cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy, resilience and degree of hurt on the cognitive, affective and behavioral forgiveness. For this, 167 adults completed the Empathy Inventory, the Resilience Scale and the Enright Forgiveness Inventory. The measurements were correlated and we also used regression tests. Together, the studies support the importance of empathy (especially the cognitive dimension) and resilience for forgiveness. This means that, to forgive, the victim needs to have an engaged position in the process of overcoming interpersonal adversity. The resilient mobilization that involves the effort to understand the perspective, the reasons and the feelings that underlie the observable offender's behavior is essential for the individual to take control of their emotions and not be at the mercy of external factors to get relief from pain. In terms of reasons to forgive, results highlighted the role of perception of personal impairments caused by unforgiveness. External factors such as the apology, while contributing to forgiveness, are not as important as the resources undertaken by individuals. The conclusion is about the importance of developing the victims empathic ability and belief in their personal strengths to achieve interpersonal forgiveness