Failure to forgive self and others: a replication and extension of the relationship between forgiveness, personality, social desirability and generalhealth

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between forgiv eness of self, forgiveness of others, and personality and general health me asures. Three hundred and twenty-four undergraduate students (100 males, 22 4 females) completed measures of forgiveness of oneself, forgiveness of oth ers, the Abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the General Health Questionnaire-28. Failure to forgive oneself is acc ompanied by personality and general health scores that reflect individual p sychopathology, with men and women scoring higher in neuroticism, depressio n and anxiety. A failure to forgive others is accompanied by personality an d general health scores that reflect social introversion among men flow ext raversion scores) and social-pathology among women (social dysfunction, psy choticism). Further, a failure to forgive others is accompanied by higher d epression scores among men and women. The findings suggest that the concept of forgiveness can be related to individual and social psychopathology. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.