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Collectivism, Forgiveness, and Social Harmony

Virginia Commonwealth University

Everett L. Worthington, Jr

Virginia Commonwealth University

Shawn O. Utsey

Virginia Commonwealth University

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 for- giveness occurs within the broad context of social harmony, reconciliation, and relational repair. Second, collectivistic forgiveness is understood as pri- marily 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 individ- ualistically motivated forgiveness). Finally, the authors suggest a research agenda to study collectivistic forgiveness and provide guidelines for address- ing forgiveness with collectivistic clients.

This version was published on August 1, 2009

The Counseling Psychologist, Vol. 37, No. 6, 821-847 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0011000008326546


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