TENDENCY TO FORGIVENESS AS A PREDICTOR OF DECREASE DEPRESSION

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of the study is to identify the relationship between the tendency to forgivenessand depression in a sample of 168 students (87 women and 81 men), of which 96 students aged 19 to 23 years,receiving first higher education and 72 students aged 24 to 45 years of obtaining a second higher education.The sample of respondents was formed from 5 Ukrainian universities: Borys Hrinchenko Kyiv University,M. P. Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, KROK University of Economics and Law, Kyiv NationalLinguistic University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Methods. The following psychodiagnostic methods were used in the empirical study: 1) questionnaire“Forgiveness scale as character trait” (authors: J. W. Berry, E. L. Worthington, L. E. O’Connor, L. Parrott,N. G. Wade); 2) the method of “Diagnosis of depression and anxiety” (author: L. R. Derogatis); 3) the scaleof psychological well-being (author K. Riff, version Shevelenkova-Fesenko). Spearman’s correlation analysisand simple linear regression analysis were used to process the empirical data.

Results. The concept of forgiveness is seen as a process of a person’s conscious rejection of resentment,anger, hatred, indignation, sadness caused by other people’s unfair treatment of them, and replacing negativefeelings with more neutral and, finally, positive ones, such as compassion, pity, accompanied by positivethoughts about the offender and the termination of his conviction. Significant negative correlations bySpearman’s correlation analysis were found between the tendency to forgive and depression, and anxiety.There is a positive significant correlation by Spearman’s correlation analysis between the tendency to forgiveand psychological well-being.

Conclusions. People who are more prone to forgiveness are characterized by less pronounced depressionand anxiety and more pronounced psychological well-being. The tendency to forgive has been found tobe a predictor of reduced depression. The obtained results can be used in the process of further researchof the problem of the peculiarities of the tendency to forgive and in psychological counseling and psychotherapy.