The authors of the study are researchers María Fernández-Capo, Silvia Recorder and María Gámiz, from UIC Barcelona, along with Juana Gómez from the University of Barcelona and Everett L. Worthington from Virginia Commonwealth University.
The article “Measuring Forgiveness. A Systematic Review” was published in the journal entitled European Psychologist. The aim of the study was to determine the best tools to measure forgiveness. In order to do this, the researchers undertook a systematic review involving a search of 4 databases (Scopus, WOS, PubMed, Psycinfo), combining derivatives of the words forgiveness and evaluation.
The search resulted in a total of 42 documents reflecting 45 different ways to measure forgiveness. The measurement tools were classified using Psychometric Scales (N=33) and subdivided in turn depending on whether they were measuring dispositional forgiveness, episodic forgiveness or dyadic forgiveness. The 12 remaining measurement tools were classified as other measurements of forgiveness and were divided into tools to measure implicit forgiveness, behavioural forgiveness and finally biological forgiveness.
In relation to the scales, a detailed analysis of their psychometric properties was undertaken. Based on the evaluated characteristics a total score was obtained for each scale in order to guide readers when choosing them as an evaluation tool. The results demonstrated that the most powerful scales to measure dispositional forgiveness at a psychometric level were the TNTF, the HFS and the DFS scales. In relation to episodic forgiveness, the best were TRIM-12 and DTFS.
As one of the researchers, Silvia Recoder, explained, one of the conclusions of the study is “that there is a clear discrepancy between researchers and clinics in relation to the concept of forgiveness”. Along the same lines, the authors put forward a guide for selecting evaluation tools in their paper. Recoder underlined the fact that “an analysis of the relationship between forgiveness and related variables is included, thus creating a nomological network of constructs”.
