A Forgiveness Intervention for Older Adults

The following pages are supplementary material for online publication

Appendix A

Adapted Core Components (Wade & Worthington, 2005) of the Forgiveness Intervention in Old Age

Component / Content / Goal
1. Define forgiveness / Discuss similarities and differences with related words such as reconciliation or forgetting / To avoid confusion and further victimization
To clarify what forgiveness is (and what it is not)
2. Recall the hurt / Assist the participants in remembering the transgression within a supportive environment / To reduce the pain of the offense through catharsis
To clarify the transgression situation
3. Build empathy / Take the perspective of the offender, and experience what she/he feels / To decrease negative thoughts and feelings
To clarify the transgressors’ perspective
4. Acknowledge own offenses / Remember and recall events when the participants have been an offender him-/herself / To remember how it feels to desire and receive forgiveness from another
5. Commit to forgiveness / Encourage the participants to forgive and to stick on the forgiveness process / To keep forgiveness as a goal
6. Overcome unforgiveness / Learn strategies to cope with anger, avoidance, rumination – not necessarily promotion of forgiveness / To reduce negative feelings and cognitions such as anger, bitterness

Appendix B

Additional Components of the Forgiveness Intervention in Old Age

Component / Content / Goal
1a. Recall forgiveness-relevant childhood memories / Remember forgiveness-relevant events in childhood, reflecting which reaction patterns have been learned, and compare them to actual forgiveness behavior / To know one’s own life story, to understand and clarify one’s own perspective and behavior
1b. Reanalysis of the transgression / Recall the transgression from an observer perspective and a protagonist perspective; separating facts from reactions / To understand and clarify one’s own perspective and behavior
2. Analysis of the role of emotions and one’s own emotional reactions / Identify and accept (negative) emotions, understanding individual emotion patterns / To understand and clarify one’s own emotions

Appendix C

Activities for the Two Sessions of the Forgiveness Intervention

Session 1

Steps / Content/description / Intent/goal / Modality
1. / Introduction, ground rules for the group and overview of the intervention
2. / Discussion of inter- and intraindividual differences in reactions to interpersonal transgressions

How do people react to a transgression?
How do you typically (or in a specific situation) react to a transgression?

To understand different reactions to interpersonal transgression and to clarify one’s own perspective and behavior

/ Group discussion
3. / Discussion of the role of childhood experiences with interpersonal transgressions and forgiveness

How did your family (members) react in transgression situations?
Did you ever see or hear that your mother or father said “sorry” to you or another person?
Did you have to say “sorry” when you hurt someone or made a mistake?
Were you forgiven then?
Do you see parallels from what you experienced in childhood to your actual forgiveness behavior?
Which strategies that you used in childhood were successful, which not?

To understand one’s own past and actual behavior in and after interpersonal transgression
To understand the role of interpersonal transgressions in one’s own life story

/ Individual reflection followed by a group discussion
4. / Clarification of what forgiveness is and what it is not by comparing forgiveness with related concepts such as forgetting and reconciliation /

To clarify what forgiveness is (and what it is not)
To avoid confusion and further victimization due to misunderstanding of concepts

/ Exercise followed by a group discussion
5. / Theoretical input about psychological models of forgiveness and forgiveness research

Which model fits best to your behavior?
Is it always the same model or is it situation-, person- or relation-specific?
Which factors do have an influence on your forgiveness?

To get to know possible factors that influence forgiveness, reasons and benefits to forgive
To reflect one’s own forgiveness behavior

/ Theoretical input with individual reflection followed by a group discussion
6. / Clarification of benefits and costs of forgiveness

Which are the benefits of forgiving the transgressor?
Which are the costs of forgiving the transgressor?

To think about positive and negative consequences of forgiveness
To think about benefits of forgiveness for well-being

/ Exercise followed by a group discussion
7. / Acknowledgment of one’s own offenses (nobody is perfect)

Did you offend or hurt someone and regret it?
How did you feel?
Did you wish to be forgiven?
Can you describe the feeling of being forgiven (or not being forgiven)?

To remember how it feels to wish and receive forgiveness from another person

/ Individual reflection followed by a group discussion

Session 2

Steps / Content/description / Intent/goal / Modality
1. / Introduction and overview of the second session

How did you feel the last few days?

/ Dialog
2. / Recall the hurt

What exactly happened?
Which emotions, thoughts and behavior did this transgression evoke/produce?
How intense was the transgression when it happened (and how intense is it actually)?

To clarify the transgression situation
To reduce the pain of the offense through catharsis

/ Individual reflection and examples of transgressions of the participants
3. / Perception and acceptance of emotions

Which emotion(s) did you have regarding the transgression?
Persons differ in their typical emotion patterns: Do you know and accept your typical emotion patterns?

To understand and clarify one’s own emotions and emotional patterns

/ Short theoretical input followed by an individual reflection
4. / Attribution patterns and typical reactions

Exercise: Tell the other group members a story about a personal success and a personal failure. In the next step, think (and then tell) the reason of this successful and failed event. (Afterwards presentation of the different attribution patterns and their consequences).

To enhance the understanding of the own attribution patterns and thoughts

/ Exercise
5. / Broadening the view of the transgressor: Change of perspective and building empathy with a fictive transgression situation (according to Linden, Rotter, Baumann, & Lieberei, 2008)

Please put yourself into the place of the hurt person:
How would you feel?
What would you think and do?

To change the perspective and to build empathy for the transgressor

/ Exercise and group discussion for the fictive transgression, encouraging the participants to reflect their transgression situation
6. / Contextualism and long-term perspective of a transgression (according to Linden et al., 2008)

What could be a typical approach to this transgression for a grandmother, a manager, or a psychologist?
Imagine that in some years, the hurt person will write a biography. How will she/he describe the situation then?
Painting a lifeline, for example with valleys, peaks and all the important events: do you count more positive or more negative events? Are there other transgressions that were intense when they occurred but are painless now?

To reduce negative feelings and cognitions such as anger, bitterness by creating distance and thinking of different and even positive perspectives

/ Exercise and group discussion; working with the fictive example first, then with the transgressions reported by the participants
7. / Encouraging a commitment to forgive the transgressor

Remember the benefits of forgiveness. Imagine how you would feel.

To keep forgiveness as a goal

/ Individual reflection and group discussion
8. / Integration and take-home-message