Julie J. Exline

Psychological Entitlement: Interpersonal Consequences and Validation of a Self-Report Measure

Nine studies were conducted with the goal of developing a self-report measure of psychological entitlement and assessing its interpersonal consequences. The Psychological Entitlement Scale (PES) was found to be reliable and valid (Study 1, 2), not associated with social desirability (Study 2), stable across time (Study 3), and correlated negatively with two of the Big Five factors: agreeableness and emotional stability (Study 4). The validity of the PES was confirmed in studies that assessed willingness to take candy designated for children (Study 5) and reported deservingness of pay in a hypothetical employment setting (Study 6). Finally, the PES was linked to important interpersonal consequences including competitive choices in a commons dilemma (Study 7), selfish approaches to romantic relationships (Study 8), and aggression following ego threat (Study 9). Psychological entitlement has a pervasive and largely unconstructive impact on social behavior.

Guilt, discord, and alienation: the role of religious strain in depression and suicidality.

Although religion is usually portrayed as a source of comfort, individuals may also experience strain in their religious lives. Associations between religious variables and psychological distress were examined within two groups: a nonclinical sample of 200 college students and a clinical sample of 54 persons seeking outpatient psychotherapy. Participants reported more comfort than strain associated with religion. Religious strain was associated with greater depression and suicidality, regardless of religiosity levels or the degree of comfort found in religion. Depression was associated with feelings of alienation from God and, among students, with interpersonal conflicts on religious domains. Suicidality was associated with religious fear and guilt, particularly with belief in having committed an unforgivable sin. Religious strain, along with religiosity, was associated with greater interest in addressing religious issues in psychotherapy. These results highlight the role of religious strain as a potentially important indicator of psychological distress.

Too proud to let go: narcissistic entitlement as a barrier to forgiveness.

Narcissistic entitlement impedes forgiveness in ways not captured by other robust predictors (e.g., offense severity, apology, relationship closeness, religiosity, Big Five personality factors), as demonstrated in 6 studies. Narcissistic entitlement involves expectations of special treatment and preoccupation with defending ones rights. In Study 1, entitlement predicted less forgiveness and greater insistence on repayment for a past offense. Complementary results emerged from Study 2, which used hypothetical transgressions, and Study 3, which assessed broad forgiveness dispositions. Study 4 examined associations with the Big Five, and Study 5 extended the findings to a laboratory context. Study 6 demonstrated that entitlement predicted diminished increases in forgiveness over time. Taken together, these results suggest that narcissistic entitlement is a robust, distinct predictor of unforgiveness.

Forgiveness and Justice: A Research Agenda for Social and Personality Psychology

Forgiveness and related constructs (e.g., repentance, mercy, reconciliation) are ripe for study by social and personality psychologists, including those interested in justice. Current trends in social science, law, management, philosophy, and theology suggest a need to expand existing justice frameworks to incorporate alternatives or complements to retribution, including forgiveness and related processes. In this article, we raise five challenging empirical questions about forgiveness. For each question, we briefly review representative research, raise hypotheses, and suggest specific ways in which social and personality psychologists could make distinctive contributions.

Virtue, personality, and social relations: self-control as the moral muscle.

Morality is a set of rules that enable people to live together in harmony, and virtue involves internalizing those rules. Insofar as virtue depends on overcoming selfish or antisocial impulses for the sake of what is best for the group or collective, self-control can be said to be the master virtue. We analyze vice, sin, and virtue from the perspective of self-control theory. Recent research findings indicate that self-control involves expenditure of some limited resource and suggest the analogy of a moral muscle as an appropriate way to conceptualize virtue in personality. Guilt fosters virtuous self-control by elevating inter-personal obligations over personal, selfish interests. Several features of modern Western society make virtue and self-control especially difficult to achieve.

When God Disappoints Difficulty Forgiving God and its Role in Negative Emotion

In light of growing empirical interest in the links between forgiveness, religious belief, and well-being, a study was designed to examine the emotional impact of a specific problem with forgiveness: difficulty forgiving God. Difficulty forgiving God was found to predict anxious and depressed mood within a college student sample (N 5 200), and its contribution was independent of difficulties forgiving the self and others. Two psychological factors emerged as central in explaining the link between difficulty forgiving God and negative emotion: an angry disposition and feelings of alienation from God. Also, among those who currently believed in God, forgiving God for a specific, powerful incident predicted lower levels of anxious and depressed mood. These findings suggest that an unforgiving attitude toward God is a distinct type of problem with forgiveness, one that serves as a potent predictor of negative emotion.

Anger toward God: social-cognitive predictors, prevalence, and links with adjustment to bereavement and cancer.

Many people see themselves as being in a relationship with God and see this bond as comforting. Yet, perceived relationships with God also carry the potential for experiencing anger toward God, as shown here in studies with the U.S. population (Study 1), undergraduates (Studies 2 and 3), bereaved individuals (Study 4), and cancer survivors (Study 5). These studies addressed 3 fundamental issues regarding anger toward God: perceptions and attributions that predict anger toward God, its prevalence, and its associations with adjustment. Social-cognitive predictors of anger toward God paralleled predictors of interpersonal anger and included holding God responsible for severe harm, attributions of cruelty, difficulty finding meaning, and seeing oneself as a victim. Anger toward God was frequently reported in response to negative events, although positive feelings predominated. Anger and positive feelings toward God showed moderate negative associations. Religiosity and age correlated negatively with anger toward God. Reports of anger toward God were slightly lower among Protestants and African Americans in comparison with other groups (Study 1). Some atheists and agnostics reported anger involving God, particularly on measures emphasizing past experiences (Study 2) and images of a hypothetical God (Study 3). Anger toward God was associated with poorer adjustment to bereavement (Study 4) and cancer (Study 5), particularly when anger remained unresolved over a 1-year period (Study 5). Taken together, these studies suggest that anger toward God is an important dimension of religious and spiritual experience, one that is measurable, widespread, and related to adjustment across various contexts and populations.

The perils of outperformance: sensitivity about being the target of a threatening upward comparison.

Outperforming others, although privately satisfying, can be a source of interpersonal strain. This article presents the framework of a major form of outperformance-related distress, which we label sensitivity about being the target of a threatening upward comparison (STTUC). To become STTUC, an individual must believe that another person is making an upward comparison against the self and feels threatened by the contrast in status. The outperformer must also experience concern about some facet of the others response, and this concern may be focused on the other, the self, or the relationship. In addition to offering new predictions about outperformance-related distress, the STTUC framework unites many previously disconnected findings on topics such as fear of success, envy, self-presentation, and self-evaluation maintenance.

Self-forgiveness versus excusing: The roles of remorse, effort, and acceptance of responsibility

Recent self-forgiveness research raises thorny issues: Are people who claim to forgive themselves merely excusing their offenses? Might it be adaptive for people to feel distress after they hurt others? This study asked 138 undergraduates to reflect on times when they offended others. Feelings of self-condemnation were associated with maladjustment, as shown in prior studies. However, participants reported more prosocial responses (repentance and a sense of being humbled) if they accepted responsibility, experienced remorse, and found that reducing negative feelings required effort. Egotism was associated with reluctance to accept responsibility, whereas a more shame-prone, neurotic pattern was associated with self-condemnation. To avoid confounding self-forgiveness with excusing, future studies should include responsibility ratings and should also distinguish between remorse and self-condemnation.

Not So Innocent : Does Seeing One's Own Capability for Wrongdoing Predict Forgiveness?

People are more forgiving toward transgressors if they see themselves as capable of committing similar offenses, as demonstrated in 7 studies. Methods included hypothetical scenarios, actual recalled offenses, individual and group processes, and correlational and experimental designs. Three factors mediated the link between personal capability and forgiveness: seeing the others offense as less severe, greater empathic understanding, and perceiving oneself as similar to the transgressor. In terms of predicting forgiveness, it was important that peoples own offenses were similar to the target offense in terms of both severity and type. The personal capability effect was independent of other established predictors of forgiveness and was more pronounced among men than women.