Rebecca L. Jobe

A change of heart: cardiovascular correlates of forgiveness in response to interpersonal conflict.

This study sought to examine the psychophysiological correlates of forgiveness in response to interpersonal conflict. One hundred eight college students (44 males and 64 females) participated in two interviews about times of interpersonal betrayal, one about a parent and one about a friend/partner. Measures of forgiving personality and state forgiveness were collected, as well as stress, hostility, empathy, and self-reported illness symptoms. During baseline, interviews and recovery periods, repeated measures were taken of blood pressure, heart rate, frontalis EMG, and skin conductance. Trait forgiveness was associated with lower levels of blood pressure. State forgiveness was associated with lower blood pressure levels, heart rate, and rate pressure product. Acute, stress-induced reactivity was also linked to forgiveness: state forgiveness was associated with diastolic and mean arterial pressure and rate pressure product reactivity during the parent interview. Increased blood pressure recovery after stress was also linked to trait forgiveness. Forgiveness may produce beneficial effects directly by reducing allostatic load associated with betrayal and conflict, and indirectly through reductions in perceived stress.

The Unique Effects of Forgiveness on Health: An Exploration of Pathways

The relationship of forgiveness, both state and trait, to health was assessed. Eighty-one community adults completed a packet of questionnaires and participated in a laboratory interview about a time of hurt or betrayal. Heart rate and blood pressure were recorded during a 10 min baseline, the interview and during a recovery period; interviews were structured around a framework of questions and videotaped. Four measures of forgiveness were all statistically associated with five measures of health (physical symptoms, medications used, sleep quality, fatigue, and somatic complaints). Trait forgiveness was associated with decreased reactivity (rate-pressure product) to the interview, but sympathetic reactivity did not account for the trait forgiveness–health association. Four mechanisms or pathways by which forgiveness could lead to fewer physical symptoms were examined: spirituality, social skills, reduction in negative affect, and reduction in stress. All factors either partially or fully mediated the effect of forgiveness on health; however, the strongest mediator for both state and trait forgiveness was reduction in negative affect. For state forgiveness, the second strongest mediator was reduction in stress; for trait forgiveness, both conflict management and reduction in stress were strong contributors.

Dimensions of forgiveness: The views of laypersons

Many conceptualizations of forgiveness currently exist in the forgiveness literature. The present study adds another perspective to the forgiveness discussion by investigating lay definitions of forgiveness, as well as reasons for forgiveness and nonforgiveness. In Study 1, undergraduate students completed a questionnaire packet in which they provided three narratives of interpersonal offense: a time when they had been hurt and then forgave the offender, a time when they had been hurt and did not forgive, and a time when they had hurt someone else and were forgiven. Respondents were also asked questions about their conceptualization of forgiveness and the factors that influence their decisions to forgive or not forgive. In Study 2, community adults participated in interviews during which they described a time when they had been betrayed or hurt. Following their story, participants answered questions about their definitions of and motivations for forgiveness. A number of important themes in forgiveness definition and motivation are identified, and important similarities and differences between the under-graduate and community samples are discussed. In particular, it is noted that primary motivations for forgiveness appear to be largely self-focused, rather than altruistic.

Spirituality Predicts Health and Cardiovascular Responses to Stress in Young Adult Women

The primary focus of this study was to investigate the roles of spirituality and religiosity in self-reported physical health, and to determine whether there is an association between an individual’s spirituality and cardiovascular responses to two stressors. Fifty-two females participated in both a betrayal interview and a structured interview, during which blood pressure and heart rate were monitored. Spirituality, as assessed by the Spiritual Well-being Scale, was associated with perceived stress, subjective well-being, and medication use. The Existential Well-being subscale predicted fewer physical health symptoms and was associated with lower mean heart rate and decreased heart rate reactivity. The Religious Well-being subscale was associated with reduced systolic blood pressure reactivity in response to the structured interview. These findings suggest that spirituality may have a salutary effect on health, even in a fairly young sample. While previous studies have predominantly reported that religion, as well as spirituality, have a health protective effect, this study did not find strong support for that conclusion. Religiosity in this age group may still be undergoing developmental maturity, which may explain the lack of relationships to health.

Giving to others during national tragedy: The effects of altruistic and egoistic motivations on long-term giving

The debate over altruistic and egoistic motivations for helping has a long history and evidence supports both motives. Immediate and sustained helping following the September 11 attacks on the United States were examined. The three most commonly reported helping behaviors were donating money, praying, and donating blood. Six reported motivations for giving emerged: to relieve one’s own distress, to relieve the other’s distress, to show patriotism, to show civic responsibility, the desire for support in a similar situation, and knowing someone involved. Less giving was reported after 1 year than immediately following the event. The only motivation related to sustained giving was giving to relieve the other’s distress. Results are discussed using two theories of helping.

Associations between having a boyfriend and the body satisfaction and self-esteem of college women: an extension of the Lin and Kulik hypothesis.

NEARLY UNIVERSAL BODY DISSATISFACTION among young Western women has often been attributed, at least in part, to the ubiquitous portrayals of extremely thin models in Western media (e.g., Gordon, 2000; Thompson & Heinberg, 1999). Lin and Kulik (2002) suggested that young women with boyfriends might be less likely to unfavorably compare themselves with these thin media models and consequently have less body dissatisfaction and higher self-esteem than those without boyfriends. Although Lin and Kulik’s study of exposure to thin and heavy models did not support this hypothesis, their hypothesis is consistent with Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). In Replications and Refinements

Identifying Careless Responses in Questionnaire Research: A Serendipitous Finding

The present study describes a possible method by which potentially meaningless responses to questionnaires can be easily identified. Given an inadvertent mistake in the design of a questionnaire packet, we found that 10% of respondents provided invalid responses to items.

Perceptions of the Jackson-Timberlake Super Bowl incident : Role of sexism and erotophobia

201 college womens and 179 mens impressions of the Jackson-Timberlake Super Bowl incident were related to measures of benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and erotophobia. For both women and men high benevolent sexism was correlated (.17–.24) to perceptions that the incident was degrading and that agents (e.g., MTV, NFL, Hollywood) other than the actors were responsible for the incident, whereas high erotophobia was correlated (.29–.39) to perceptions that the incident was degrading, attributable to others, and personally upsetting.