The Mediating Role of Forgiveness in the Relationship between Vengeance and Tranquility

Abstract

This research aimed to examine the mediating role of forgiveness in the relationship between vengeance and tranquility. 297 university students participated in this research. Scales of revenge, forgiveness and tranquility were used to collect data. The results indicated that forgiveness played a full mediator role in the relationship between vengeance and tranquility. In other words, in this model, as vengeance increases, tranquility and forgiveness decrease, and forgiveness plays a mediating role in that relationship. Individuals with high levels of vengeance are unlikely to have high levels of tranquility and forgiveness. If individuals feel more vengeance, they may have low forgiveness and exhibit less tendency to feelings of tranquility.

Keywords

• Foregiveness,
• tranquility,
• vengeance

Kaynakça

1. Abid, M., & Sultan, S. (2015). Dispositional forgiveness as a predictor of psychological resilience among women: A sign of mental health. i-manager’s Journal on Educational Psychology, 9(2), 1-7.
2. Aquino, K., Tripp, T. M., & Bies, R. J. (2001). How employees respond to personal offense: The effects of blame attribution, victim status, and offender status on revenge and reconciliation in the workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 52-59. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.52
3. Axelrod, R. (1984). The evolution of cooperation. Basic Books.
4. Bacanlı, H. (2016). Nasıl huzurlu olunur? (Benlik kavramı üzerinden huzur). I. International Congress on Religious-Spiritual Counselling & Care, (p. 102). İstanbul.
5. Bajwa, M. J., & Khalid, R. (2015). Impact of personality on vengeance and forgiveness in young adults. Psychology & Clinical Psychiatry, 2(5), 1-5.
6. Barclay, P. (2008) Using the hatchet and burying it afterwards – A review of Beyond revenge: The evolution of the forgiveness instinct. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 450–51.
7. Berenbaum, H., Chow, I. P., Schoenleber, M., & Flores, L. E. (2016). Personality and pleasurable emotions. Personality and Individual Differences, 101, 400-406.
8. Berenbaum, H., Huang, A. B., & Flores, L. E. (2019). Contentment and tranquility: Exploring their similarities and differences. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14(2), 252-259.

9. Browne, C. N., Lloyd, J. B., Konkright, R. F., Toney, B. R., Severson, H. E., & Mayton, D. M. (2010, August). Inner peace: Personality characteristics of a peaceful person. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, San Diego, CA.
10. Bono, G., & McCullough, M. E. (2006). Positive responses to benefit and harm: Bringing forgiveness and gratitude into cognitive psychotherapy. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 20, 1-10.
11. Cota-Mckinley, A. L., Woody, W. D., & Bell, P. A. (2001). Vengeance: Effects of gender, age, and religious background. Aggressive Behavior, 27, 343–350.
12. Çapan, B. E., & Arıcıoğlu, A. (2014). Psikolojik sağlamlığın yordayıcısı olarak affedicilik. e-Uluslararası Eğitim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 5(4), 70-82.
13. Demirci, İ. (2017). The investigation of peaceful and happy life in the context of values and character strengths by using the mixed method (Unpublishing doctoral thesis). Marmara University, Institute of Education Science, İstanbul.
14. Demirci, İ., & Ekşi, H. (2018). Keep calm and be happy: A mixed method study from character strengths to well-being. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 18(29), 303–354.
15. Ellison, C. G., Burdette, A. M., & Hill, T. D. (2009). Blessed assurance: Religion, anxiety, and tranquility among US adults. Social Science Research, 38(3), 656-667.
16. Enright, R. D. (2001). Forgiveness is a choice: A step-by-step process for resolving anger and restoring hope. American Psychological Association.
17. Enright, R. D., & Fitzgibbons, R. P. (2000). Helping clients forgive: An empirical guide for resolving anger and restoring hope. American Psychological Association.
18. Enright, R. D., & Group, T. H. (1991). The moral development of forgiveness. In W. M. Kurtines, & J. L. (Eds), Handbook of moral behavior and development (p. 123-152). Erlbaum.
19. Ersanlı, E. (2014). The validity and reliability study of tolerance scale. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 4(1), 85-89.
20. Ersanlı, K., & Batık, M. V. (2015). Development of the Forgiveness Scale: A Study of Reliability and Validity. International Periodical for The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkich, 10(7), 19-32. doi:10.7827/TurkishStudies.
21. Fitzgibbons, R. P. (1986). The cognitive and emotive uses of forgiveness in the treatment of anger. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 23 (4), 629.
22. Fredrickson, B. L. (2009). Positivity. Random House.
23. Floody, D. R. (2014). Serenity and Inner Peace: Positive Perspectives. Gregory K. Sims, Linden L. Nelson, & Mindy. R. Puopolo (Ed), Personal peacefulness psychological perspectives. Springer.
24. Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300-319.
25. Gabriel, M. A., & Monaco, G. W. (1994). “Getting even”: clinical considerations of adaptive and maladaptive vengeance. Clinical Social Work Journal, 22(2), 165-178.
26. Giammarco, E. A., & Vernon, P. A. (2014). Vengeance and the Dark Triad: The role of empathy and perspective taking in trait forgivingness. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 23-29.
27. Goldner, L., Lev-Wiesel, R., & Simon, G. (2019). Revenge fantasies after experiencing traumatic events: sex differences. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 886.
28. Hall, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (2005). Self-forgiveness: The stepchild of forgiveness research. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 621–637.
29. Hope, D. (1987). The healing paradox of forgiveness. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training 24, 240–244.
30. Idler, E. L. (1987). Religious involvement and the health of the elderly: some hypotheses and an initial test. Social Forces, 66, 226–238.
31. Jackson, J. C., Choi, V. K., & Gelfand, M. J. (2019). Revenge: A multilevel review and synthesis. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 319-345.
32. John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The big five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd Ed., pp. 102–130). Guilford.
33. Kalaycı, Ş. (2010). SPSS uygulamalı çok değişkenli istatistik teknikleri. Asil.
34. Karasar, N. (1994). Bilimsel Araştırma Yöntemi. Nobel.
35. Kaya, F., & Peker, A. (2016). The Relationship Between Perfectionism and Forgiveness of University Students: The Mediator Role of Emotional Intelligence. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 15(4), 1086-1094. DOI: 10.21547/jss.265492
36. Kaya, Ö. S., & Orçan, F. (2019). Mediating role of happiness between empathy, forgiveness, life satisfaction: A path analysis. Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 19 (2), 540-554. https://dx.doi.org/10.17240/aibuefd.20xx.xx.xxxxx-xxxxxx
37. Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Wood, A. M., Osbourne, G., & Hurling, R. (2009). Measuring happiness: The higher order factor structure of subjective of psychological well-being measures. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 878–884.
38. Luma, C. (2004). Inner peace questionnaire. Center for Inner Peace. www.centerforinnerpeace.net/services/peacequiz.php. Accessed 26 Aug 2011.
39. Luskin, F. (2003). Forgive for good: A proven prescription for health and happiness. Harper.
40. Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.
41. Mayton, D. M. (2012). The psychology of nonviolence and nonkilling: Theory, measurement, and correlates. D. J. Christie & J. E. Pim (Eds.), Nonkilling psychology (pp. 341–360). Honolulu: Center for Global Nonkilling. http://www.nonkillinjg.org.
42. McCullough, M. E. (2000). Forgiveness as human strength: Theory, measurement, being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19, 43-55.
43. McCullough, M. E., Bellah, C. G., Kilpatrick, S. D., & Johnson, J. L. (2001). Vengefulness: Relationships with forgiveness, rumination, well-being, and the Big Five. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 601–610.
44. Nelson, L. L. (2014). Peacefulness as a personality trait. Gregory K. Sims, Linden L. Nelson, & Mindy R. Puopolo (Ed). Personal Peacefulness Psychological Perspectives. Springer.
45. North, J. (1987). Wrongdoing and forgiveness. Philosophy, 62(242), 499-508.
46. Pekala, R. J., Kumar, V. K., Maurer, R., Elliot-Carter, N. C., & Moon, E. (2009). Self-esteem and its relationship to serenity and anger-impulsivity in an alcohol and other drug-dependency population: Implications for treatment. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 27, 94–112.
47. Reiss, S. (2000). Who am I? The 16 basic desires that motivate our personalities. Tarcher/Putnam.
48. Roberts, K. T., & Aspy, C. B. (1993). Development of the Serenity Scale. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 1 (2), 145–164.
49. Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069–1081.
50. Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 719–727.
51. Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1995). Coherence and congruence: Two aspects of personality integration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 531–543.
52. Satıcı, S. A. (2016). Forgiveness, vengeance, social connectedness and subjective well-being of university students: A study on examining different structural models (Unpublishing doctoral thesis). Anadolu University, Institute of Education Science, Eskişehir.
53. Satıcı, S. A., Can, G., & Akın, A. (2012). The vengeance scale: The validity and reliability of the Turkish version. [Abstract]. The International Counseling and Education Conference, 2012 (ICEC 2012). İstanbul.
54. Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1995). Coherence and congruence: Two aspects of personality integration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 531–543.
55. Socarides, C. W. (1966). On vengeance: The desire to “get. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 14(2), 356-375.
56. Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J. (2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 138–161.
57. Stuckless, N., & Goranson, R. (1992). The vengeance scale: Development of a measure of attitudes toward revenge. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 7(1), 25-42.
58. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics. Ma: Pearson.
59. Türk Dil Kurumu. (2019). TDK Dictionary. http://sozluk.gov.tr/
60. Topbaşoğlu, T. (2016). Anger and forgiveness as predictors of life satisfaction: The moderator role of forgiveness [Unpublished master thesis]. Pamukkale University, Institute of education Science, Denizli.
61. Uysal, R., & Satıcı, S. A. (2014). The mediating and moderating role of subjective happiness in the relationship between vengeance and forgiveness. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 14(6), 2097-2105.
62. Uzun, G. Ö., & Eş, A. Ç. (2019). The relationship between levels of revenge, forgiveness and guilt. International Conference on Interdisciplinary Educational Reflections. 34, 34-41. https://icier2019.con.neu.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/09/conferance-proceedings-book-icier-2019_18.09.2019_v2.pdf#page=34
63. Walker, H. (2015). Joy within tranquility: Amazonian Urarina styles of happiness. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 5(3), 177-196.
64. Zhang, Q., Oetzel, J. G., Ting-Toomey, S., & Zhang, J. (2019). Making up or getting even? The effects of face concerns, self-construal, and apology on forgiveness, reconciliation, and revenge in the United States and China. Communication Research, 46(4), 503-524.
65. http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&UID=1992-33601-001