Forgiveness: A perception and motivation study among married adults, Orathinkal, Vanseenwegen and Burggraeve (2008) explore the manifestation and effects of forgiveness in intimate relationships. The paper begins by stressing recent interest among mental health experts in forgiveness. A discussion of related terms such as reconciliation, excuse and exoneration follows. The focus of the paper is on forgiveness for "interpersonal violations" such as physical attack, infidelity and incest. Research supports that forgiveness leads to marital longevity, closure in episodes of interpersonal violations and helps in relieving stress and self-esteem issues. The study aims to discover perceptions of forgiveness (measured on the Forgiveness Perception and Motivation Checklist) among married adults and whether their perceptions are related to behavior (measured on the Enright Forgiveness Inventory). Differences in the perceptions of forgiveness between first-married (those currently in their first marriage) and remarried (after divorce or separation) adults, and between men and women are compared....
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