Psychologie a její kontexty, Vol.10, No.1

DOI: 10.15452/PsyX.2019.10.0002

Vývojové aspekty odpuštění

Developmental aspects of forgiveness

Dalimil Staněk

Cílem této přehledové studie je poskytnout stručný náhled do současné diskuse nad tématem mezilidského odpuštění v kontextu vývojové psychologie. První část představuje tři otázky týkající se obecných rysů vývoje schopnosti odpouštět. Roste schopnost odpouštět s věkem, nebo ne? Můžeme vůbec vést děti, mladé lidi a klienty k odpuštění? Je schopnost odpouštět univerzální, nebo závislá na kontextu? Druhá část předkládá poznatky z výzkumů seřazených podle vývojových fázích od raného dětství po stáří. Závěr shrnuje pozorovatelné trendy vývoje a obsahuje praktická odporučení pro psychology, terapeuty, pedagogy a rodiče. Celková analýza zahrnuje výzkumy a publikace publikované v anglickém jazyce, které pochází z mnoha zemí a pestrých kulturních kontextů.

Klíčová slova:
Odpuštění, vývojová psychologie, pedagogika, terapie, výchova

The aim of this study is to provide a basic review of literature and discussion on the topic of developmental aspects of forgiveness. All of the analyzed publications and research studies were published in the English language, but they come from many different countries and varied cultural contexts. The first part of the review presents three major questions concerning general features of forgiveness development. 1) Does the ability to forgive grow with age or not? It seems that studies which focus on cognitive development agree that age is an important factor in reasoning about forgiveness. From this point of view, forgiveness grows with age. On the other hand, studies which focus on practical ability to forgive show that age is not as an important factor. But most people who were able to unconditional forgiveness were older and more mature people. 2) Are we allowed to lead children, young people, and clients to forgiveness? This question points to the discussion of whether forgiveness is ultimate and good value and should be the goal of education and therapy, or if it is only one possibility among many. We can conclude that healthy forgiveness has a big value and it has positive outcomes for life. On the other hand, we need to be careful to promote unhealthy pseudo-forgiveness. 3) Is forgiveness universal feature of a person, or is it more dependent on specific context? On one hand, we can see that the ability to forgive is dependent on context - type of offense, type of relationship and other variables. On the other hand, we can distinguish dispositional forgiveness or forgivingness. It is a level of preparedness to forgive in a person life. Usually, we can see that dispositional forgiveness grows with the amount of forgiving specific offense in a specific context. The second part of the review presents the outcomes of different research studies focused on forgiveness from a developmental perspective. It describes forgiveness in different phases of life from young childhood to old age. In the end, we can summarize major developmental trajectories. 1) The impact of forgiveness on life satisfaction is growing with age. Among the elderly, the ability and willingness to forgive have a great impact on their happiness and health. 2) Forgiveness can deepen with age. Children and young people usually forgive those who apologize to them. Forgiveness is more connected to reconciliation. Older people are more willing to forgive unconditionally. 3) The motivation to forgive is changing with age, we can see this in classical experiments of R. Enright. 4) Unforgiveness is an option. We can find people of all ages who would not forgive. For some of them, it might be their life philosophy. Others might be hurt much and the process leading to emotional forgiveness will not be finished. 5) More freedom. In early childhood, forgiveness is influenced by temperament. In later childhood, there is a strong influence of family and society values. In the middle and late adulthood, we can see more freedom to forgive or not forgive. The end of this review provides a few practical recommendations for psychologists, therapists, pedagogues, and parents. For example, when dealing with children, there are possibilities of daily rituals of guilt, forgiveness, apology, and reconciliation. Children usually react very well to apologies, first they understand them as magical words, then they start to understand the value of feeling remorse behind the apology. Older children value Children can learn forgiveness through interactive stories. There are possibilities in forgiveness education programs and therapeutical models of forgiveness.

Keywords:
Forgiveness, developmental psychology, pedagogy, therapy, education