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Collectivism, Forgiveness, and Social Harmony
Joshua N. Hook,
Everett L. Worthington Jr.*,
and
Shawn O. Utsey
Virginia Commonwealth University
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: eworth{at}vcu.edu.
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Abstract |
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Existing models of forgiveness and the strategies to promote forgiveness that draw from them are predominantly individualistic. As the United States becomes more diverse and counseling psychology becomes a more global field, counseling psychologists are increasingly likely to encounter clients who have a collectivistic worldview. The authors propose a theoretical model that clarifies the relationship between collectivism and forgiveness. The importance of maintaining social harmony in collectivistic cultures is central to this relationship. The model has two propositions. First, collectivistic forgiveness occurs within the broad context of social harmony, reconciliation, and relational repair. Second, collectivistic forgiveness is understood as primarily a decision to forgive but is motivated largely to promote and maintain group harmony rather than inner peace (as is more often the case in individualistically motivated forgiveness). Finally, the authors suggest a research agenda to study collectivistic forgiveness and provide guidelines for addressing forgiveness with collectivistic clients.
First published on November 10, 2008, doi:10.1177/0011000008326546
The Counseling Psychologist 2009;37:821.
A more recent version of this article appeared on August 1, 2009
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