Everett L Worthington
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 112249 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Everett L Worthington |
| NOMBRES | Everett L |
| APELLIDO | Worthington |
| FIRMA | WORTHINGTON E L |
| AFILIACIONES | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5095-4588 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 130 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 494 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 130 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1982 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 7 |
Causal estimates of multidimensional well-being under hypothetical forgiveness shift scenarios
Forgiveness has been identified as a potential public health resource, but how might average well-being change if forgiveness were higher across the population? In this three-wave longitudinal study (Wave 1: 2018/2019 [T0], Wave 2: 2019/2020 [T1], Wave 3: 2020/2021 [T2]) with a nationally representative sample of New Zealanders ( N = 47928), we explore this question by investigating the potential causal effects of two hypothetical forgiveness shi…
Forgiveness as a potential public health resource
In this commentary, we bring together an interdisciplinary group of voices to engage reflections by Lemon (2026) and Tsai (2026) on Cowden, Fung, et al.’s (2026) article estimating potential causal effects of hypothetical forgiveness shift scenarios on multidimensional well-being. We explore some of the conceptual, methodological, and practical tensions that arise when a psychosocial exposure (such as forgiveness) is viewed through a public healt…
‘Doh Beat Up’ and ‘Doh Take It on
The cultural discourse metaphors ‘doh beat up’ and ‘doh take it on’ in Trinidad and Tobago capture the local sentiments of releasing self-condemnation after experiencing failure, wrongdoing, or circumstances beyond one’s control. In this study, we examined the direct and indirect relationships between religious commitment, self-forgiveness, and self-condemnation. Data were collected using an online survey of 259 adults (Mage = 40; 76% female) liv…
Can religion decrease distress and increase flourishing in times of pandemic? A three-wave longitudinal study of religious commitment in Indonesia
Childhood Predictors of Dispositional Forgivingness in Adulthood
A robust body of empirical evidence suggests that forgiveness of others is positively related to individual wellbeing. However, less empirical work has been done to identify the factors that may help children not only forgive better during childhood but also develop into adults who practice forgiveness more consistently. To support a population health agenda aimed at the promotion of forgiveness, further research is needed to identify potential d…
Religion and flourishing among Afro-Trinidadians
Background Religiousness has been consistently linked to positive health outcomes and flourishing, yet the underlying mechanisms are complex and not well-understood. The forgiveness and relational spirituality model offers a framework to explore the moderated mediation among religious commitment, health, and forgiveness by God. Understanding these relationships among university students and community residents in Trinidad and Tobago can provide v…
Forgiveness Psychoeducation with Emerging Adults
Much attention has been devoted to the effectiveness of forgiveness interventions in children and adolescents featuring two premier programs by Enright and his colleagues. Little attention has been given to psychoeducational forgiveness interventions with emerging adults. This is a narrative review of REACH Forgiveness studies with emerging adults (ages 18–25). The life tasks of emerging adults justify offering psychoeducational interventions to …
Pathways to Flourishing
The present study focused on the roles of self-forgiveness and feeling divine forgiveness in mitigating the adverse effects of stress on substance use cravings in Trinidad and Tobago. We assessed 869 individuals (62 percent of whom were women) through self-report online questionnaires. A moderation analysis using the PROCESS macro and a bootstrapping strategy (N = 5000) revealed that greater levels of self-forgiveness weakened the positive relati…
Development and Initial Validation of the Persevering Hope Scale
Hope has been conceptualized as agency and pathways to achieve goals. However, this goal-directed conceptualization does not encapsulate all situations in which hope may be beneficial. To address the dispositional motivation to endure when a desired goal seems unattainable, unlikely, or even impossible (i.e., goal-transcendent hope), we provide initial psychometric evidence for the new Persevering Hope Scale (PHS). We developed and refined the PH…
Associations of dispositional forgivingness with facets of well‐being among Colombian adults
Many studies have reported evidence suggesting that dispositional forgivingness has positive implications for different domains of well‐being. However, relatively few methodologically rigorous studies have been conducted in the Global South, particularly in post‐conflict settings where forgiveness could play an important role in supporting individual well‐being. In this three‐wave cohort study of predominantly young adult Colombians ( n = 1575), …
Religious coping with interpersonal hurts
Korean adaptation and confirmatory factor analysis of the Spiritual Bypass Scale-13
Spiritual bypassing is the propensity to avoid emotional discomfort and pain through exercising spiritual beliefs and practices. The Spiritual Bypass Scale-13 (SBS-13) was developed to assess the two major components of spiritual bypassing – avoidance and spiritualising. The purpose of this study was to translate the SBS-13 into Korean and examine its psychometric properties. Korean adults (N = 357) living in Korea or the United States completed …
Forgiveness among Ghanaian children and early adolescents in the context of peer‐to‐peer dyads
How children experience forgiveness within peer relationships is unknown among children in West Africa. In this study, we sought to understand the contributing factors and influences of forgiveness among children in Ghana for peer‐to‐peer offenses. We conducted a qualitative study on 25 participants (between the ages of 12 and 15 years) in Accra, Ghana. Thematic analysis was utilized to identify themes from semi‐structured interview transcripts. …
Let's talk about this
Interpersonal transgressions threaten victims, offenders, and their relationships, often leading the parties to ruminate about the wrongdoing, not only individually but also together, in acts of co‐rumination . We investigate how two forms of co‐rumination—co‐reflection and co‐brooding—influence, or are influenced by, individual rumination and victim forgiveness or offender self‐forgiveness. Our study used a prospective‐longitudinal‐dyadic design…
The role of making a decision to forgive in the process of forgiveness
Resource loss, positive religious coping, and suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic
Using data from a prospective cohort of US adults living with chronic illness (n = 184), we examined longitudinal associations between domains of resource loss assessed one month into the COVID-19 pandemic and suffering two months later. We also explored the role of positive religious coping in modifying relations between each type of resource loss and suffering, adjusting for a number of sociodemographics, chronic health conditions, religious/sp…
The Validation of the Decisional and Emotional Forgiveness Scale among a Chinese Sample
This study aimed to revise and test the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Decisional and Emotional Forgiveness Scale. In experiment 1, 1171 college students and postgraduates were invited to complete the questionnaire that provides the data for this scale. The results from this, following exploratory factor analysis, showed that the factor loading values met the standards detailed in the past literature, except in the case of…
Do Religious/Spiritual Resources Moderate the Association Between Suffering and Religious/Spiritual Struggles? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of US Adults with Chronic Illness
In this prospective study of US adults with chronic illness (n = 302), we examined the associations of subjective suffering and religious/spiritual (R/S) resources (i.e., religious coping, religious commitment, and spiritual fortitude) with the subsequent experience of R/S struggles. Using a rigorous analytic approach that involved adjusting for numerous covariates and prior values of all exposures and the outcome assessed in Wave 1, we found tha…
Self-Forgiveness Among Incarcerated Individuals in Ghana
Research on the forgiveness of self has largely focused on less severe, more common types of offenses among samples within developed westernized nations. In this brief report of a study within a developing nation in Africa, applications of self-forgiveness are extended to incarcerated people. The sample comprised N = 310 males (83.87%) and females (16.13%) who were incarcerated in a medium-security Ghanaian prison ( M age = 39.35, SD age = 13.28)…
Dynamics of Moral Repair
Most psychological research has investigated victims’ forgiveness and offenders’ self-forgiveness separately, ignoring interactive and dynamic processes between them. We suggest that both parties are interdependent in their attempts to revalidate the values violated by the wrongdoing. In the present study, both partners of close relationships dyads (including 164 complete couples) were surveyed over three time-points following the report of a wro…
Initial psychometric properties of the Spiritual Bypass Scale in an Indian college student sample
Changes after an Educational Intervention to Teach about and Promote Forgiveness among Seminarians and Practicing Clergy
Many studies of forgiveness have found that relatively short psychosocial interventions aimed at promoting forgiveness can result in noticeable increases in participants’ decisional and emotional forgiveness in their day-to-day lives. However, most of those interventions involve engagement in short psychoeducational experiential activities and participants want to forgive something. Less is known about a purely educational forgiveness interventio…
Including Multiculturalism, Social Justice, and Peace within the Integration of Psychology and Theology
Multiculturalism, social justice, and peace are important aspects of the Christian faith. However, scholars in the literature seeking to integrate psychology and Christian theology have underrepresented them. In this present article, we review barriers to including them in our psychology–theology integration literature. Thereafter, we provide a trinitarian theology of multiculturalism, social justice, and peace with a hope that theological knowle…
Re-imagining Integration
Several explicitly Christian doctoral psychology programs exist in the United States, providing training in the integration of psychology and Christianity. The purpose of this study was to conduct a program evaluation of student and faculty perspectives on the Christian integration training in six explicitly Christian doctoral psychology programs. A total of 299 students and 51 faculty completed the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale and a questio…
The Relationship Between Forgiveness, Bullying, and Cyberbullying in Adolescence
The study of bullying in adolescence has received increased attention over the past several decades. A growing body of research highlights the role of forgiveness and its association with aggression. In this article, we systematically review published studies on the association among online and traditional bullying and forgiveness in adolescents. Systematic searches were conducted in PsycINFO, MEDLINE, PsycArticles, and Scopus databases. From a t…
Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships
Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships
Collectivism, Forgiveness, and Social Harmony
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 impo…
Religious Faith Across the Life Span
The thesis of this article is that psychologists can benefit in assessment and counseling of clients and in research by understanding the religious development of many of their religious clients throughout the life span. Theories of religious development are reviewed in the initial section of the article. Generally, the early life of the religious person is well described by using a variety of stage theories; however, at adolescence and beyond, p…
Young Adults' Recall of Religiosity, Attributions, and Coping in Parental Divorce
Joianne L. Shortz, Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Young Adults' Recall of Religiosity, Attributions, and Coping in Parental Divorce, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Jun., 1994), pp. 172-179
The moral foundations hypothesis does not replicate well in Black samples
The current study examined the generalizability of the moral foundations hypothesis (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009), which predicts that conservatism will be positively related to the binding foundations (i.e., virtues of ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity). Religiosity has been consistently linked with the binding foundations in predominately White samples, but Black people in the United States are both more religious and mor…
The Transmission of Religious Beliefs and Practices from Parents to Firstborn Early Adolescent Sons
This study examines family and religious variables that affect the transmission of religious values from parents to early adolescent sons. Motherfather-son triads (n = 68) from Protestant congregations were administered Hunt and King's Literal, Antiliteral, Mythological (LAM) Scales and two other questionnaires. Canonical correlation analyses described relationships between parent-son agreement and parent variables on religious beliefs, experienc…
Retributive justice, restorative justice, and forgiveness
The psychology of forgiveness and its importance in South Africa
The purpose of this qualitative review is to stimulate empirical research on forgiveness within South Africa (and other portions of Africa). The article explores a Western understanding of the psychology of forgiveness, including its definition as distinct from reconciliation, its sequelae, and its predictors. Findings are examined with particular emphasis on differences between research in more Westernised societies (i.e., United States and West…
Can Religion Promote Virtue
Rather than simply studying whether religious individuals are more forgiving than nonreligious individuals, recent research has focused on how religion may promote a more fluid and efficient forgiveness process. The present studies sought to strengthen evidence for a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness (Davis, Hook, & Worthington, 2008), given the reliance of prior studies on cross-sectional designs that did not control for hurtfulne…
The Marriage Relationship During the Transition to Parenthood
Most couples experience some disruption in their relationship when they have a first child. A number of theories account for this disruption: sociological theories, normative crisis theory, the Double ABCX theory, role conflict theory, and behavioral marriage therapy theory. Both research and clinically based theories describe the nature of marital problems to be expected during the transition to parenthood and delineate ways to cope with the pro…
National longitudinal evidence for growth in subjective well-being from spiritual beliefs
Previous research finds an association between spirituality and subjective well-being. However, the widespread use of poorly defined concepts of spirituality, tautological spirituality scales, and heavy reliance on cross-sectional samples cast doubts on prior findings. Here, we leverage ten waves of panel data from a nationally diverse longitudinal study to systematically test whether having spiritual beliefs leads to growth in personal well-bein…
"Mere" Christian Forgiveness
Forgiveness is a central theme within the Christian faith, yet Christian traditions sometimes vary in how they understand and approach the forgiveness process. Nevertheless, in this paper, we present an ecumenical model of Christian forgiveness that highlights the essential components that are shared across most Christian traditions. Importantly, rather than using a theological lens to develop and describe this model, we have primarily used a psy…
Increasing Empathy through Participation in Structured Groups
Increases in empathy produced by participation in a short-term empathy skills training group were assessed by contrasting trained and untrained individuals' attributions about salient and nonsalient stimulus persons. Although previous evidence suggests that empathy limits the observer's tendency to over-attribute behavior to personal rather than situational causes, trained subjects underestimated the impact of situational determinants on behavior…
Pathways to Flourishing
The present study focused on the roles of self-forgiveness and feeling divine forgiveness in mitigating the adverse effects of stress on substance use cravings in Trinidad and Tobago. We assessed 869 individuals (62 percent of whom were women) through self-report online questionnaires. A moderation analysis using the PROCESS macro and a bootstrapping strategy (N = 5000) revealed that greater levels of self-forgiveness weakened the positive relati…
Do Religious/Spiritual Resources Moderate the Association Between Suffering and Religious/Spiritual Struggles? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of US Adults with Chronic Illness
In this prospective study of US adults with chronic illness (n = 302), we examined the associations of subjective suffering and religious/spiritual (R/S) resources (i.e., religious coping, religious commitment, and spiritual fortitude) with the subsequent experience of R/S struggles. Using a rigorous analytic approach that involved adjusting for numerous covariates and prior values of all exposures and the outcome assessed in Wave 1, we found tha…
Negative internal causal attributions of a specific offense and forgiveness
Causal attributions are important social‐cognitive predictors of forgiveness. This article presents the Transgression Attribution Questionnaire ( TAQ ), a measure of one's negative internal causal attributions of a specific offense. In 4 studies, scores on the TAQ showed initial evidence of estimated internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity. Negative internal attributions for the cause of a transgression predicted lower le…
Till death do us part
Two experiments extended terror management theory to investigate forgiveness in close relationships. We hypothesized that mortality salience would elicit less forgiveness in less committed relationships. In Experiment 1, participants were primed with either mortality salience or a physical pain control condition, recalled a recent hurtful interpersonal offense, and reported their degree of forgiveness. Mortality salience evoked less forgiveness i…
Preferences of Conservative and Moderate Christians for four Christian Counselors’ Treatment Plans
Conservative Christians, who comprise up to one-third of the total population in the United States, are often reluctant to seek counseling from nonreligious counselors. Consequently, counselors taking an explicitly Christian approach have developed a number of treatments designed to appeal to this population. In general, such treatments have not been examined experimentally. Participants (n = 45) from Protestant denominations completed questionna…
Goal Selection for Counseling with Potentially Religious Clients by Professional and Student Counselors in Explicitly Christian or Secular Settings
Research findings suggest that (a) “religious” clients are less likely to benefit from counseling (more dropouts, less beneficial change) than “nonreligious” clients and (b) successful counseling usually results in value changes by clients. It was hypothesized that both of these findings might be due to secular and religious counselors setting different goals for potentially religious clients. In this study, counselors in explicitly Christian or …
Preferences of Christians and Non-Christians for Five Christian Counselors’ Treatment Plans
This study replicated and extended a previous study that compared conservative and moderate Christians on preferences for Christian counselors’ treatment plans. Preferences of self-labeled non-Christians (n = 55) and Christians (n = 197) were compared. In a second analysis, Christians who described their Christianity as due to their personal relationship with Jesus were compared with Christians who described their Christianity as due to their lov…
Increasing Empathy through Participation in Structured Groups
Increases in empathy produced by participation in a short-term empathy skills training group were assessed by contrasting trained and untrained individuals' attributions about salient and nonsalient stimulus persons. Although previous evidence suggests that empathy limits the observer's tendency to over-attribute behavior to personal rather than situational causes, trained subjects underestimated the impact of situational determinants on behavior…
The Marriage Relationship During the Transition to Parenthood
Most couples experience some disruption in their relationship when they have a first child. A number of theories account for this disruption: sociological theories, normative crisis theory, the Double ABCX theory, role conflict theory, and behavioral marriage therapy theory. Both research and clinically based theories describe the nature of marital problems to be expected during the transition to parenthood and delineate ways to cope with the pro…
Christian Therapists' and Clients' Perceptions of Religious Psychotherapy in Private and Agency Settings
This study investigates the work of seven mental health professionals with 27 adult clients using data from 92 sessions. Therapists were in private practice or agencies. Therapists and clients (a) identified presenting problems, (b) rated improvement in therapy since its onset, and (c) estimated severity of problems both (retrospectively) at the onset of therapy and(later) at the beginning of the study. Each week, therapists and clients reported …
The Transmission of Religious Beliefs and Practices from Parents to Firstborn Early Adolescent Sons
This study examines family and religious variables that affect the transmission of religious values from parents to early adolescent sons. Motherfather-son triads (n = 68) from Protestant congregations were administered Hunt and King's Literal, Antiliteral, Mythological (LAM) Scales and two other questionnaires. Canonical correlation analyses described relationships between parent-son agreement and parent variables on religious beliefs, experienc…
The benefits of legislation requiring parental involvement prior to adolescent abortion
The authors present their support of what they consider to be the potentially beneficial aspects of mandatory parental involvement in adolescent pregnancy abortion decision making. Recognizing yet failing to closely consider the case against mandatory parental involvement they support parental involvement legislation as beneficial for the pregnant adolescent her family and family unity. The authors cite research indicating that adolescents tend t…
The benefits of legislation requiring parental involvement prior to adolescent abortion
Religious Faith Across the Life Span
The thesis of this article is that psychologists can benefit in assessment and counseling of clients and in research by understanding the religious development of many of their religious clients throughout the life span. Theories of religious development are reviewed in the initial section of the article. Generally, the early life of the religious person is well described by using a variety of stage theories; however, at adolescence and beyond, p…
Religious Faith Across the Life Span and Counseling
Encouraging Clients to Forgive People who have Hurt Them
The literature addressing forgiving and its use as a counseling technique is reviewed. Forgiving is hypothesized to yield cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal benefits to individuals who forgive others of significant interpersonal offenses, though little evidence supports these claims. Religious counselors and clients value forgiveness and its implementation in counseling, and forgiveness is frequently encouraged in religious counseling. Howev…
A Blueprint for Intradisciplinary Integration
Although much has been written about interdisciplinary integration—integrating the two broad disciplines of psychology and theology—little has been written about exactly how to do intradisciplinary integration, which is how to construct a Christian theory of psychological counseling that integrates one's personal faith and personal practice of counseling. The present paper poses questions, using an organizing metaphor of constructing a building, …
Young Adults' Recall of Religiosity, Attributions, and Coping in Parental Divorce
Joianne L. Shortz, Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Young Adults' Recall of Religiosity, Attributions, and Coping in Parental Divorce, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Jun., 1994), pp. 172-179
Christian Counselors’ Resources for Multi-Cultural Understanding and Counseling
Seven resources are discussed that Christian counselors have to offer multi-cultural counseling and understanding: a viable epistemology, a sense of community, a universal story, a recognition of the supernatural, a paradigm for forgiveness, an appreciation for symbols, and a shared experience as a minority. Psychology's response to multi-cultural issues is parallel to the response of Western missionaries encountering cultural pluralism. Suggesti…
Empirical research on religion and psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes
Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships
Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships
The Psychology of Unforgiveness and Forgiveness and Implications for Clinical Practice
Unforgiveness and forgiveness are distinct. One cannot forgive unless unforgiveness has occurred, but one might reduce unforgiveness by many ways—only one of which is forgiveness. We present a model intended to further assist and guide subsequent empirical exploration. The model explains the personal, relationship, and environmental factors that lead people to either unforgiveness or forgiveness. Related areas are reviewed to stimulate as yet une…
Religion and the Forgiving Personality
Forgiveness is a concept with deep religious roots. It is also a basic social and psychological phenomenon. In this article, we explore the links between forgiveness and religion by surveying how they are linked in the major monotheistic world religions, and how they appear to be linked empirically. In attempting to account for the current body of empirical findings, we propose four potential substantive and methodological explanations that shoul…
Seeking Forgiveness
While research on granting forgiveness has exploded recently, no theoretical or empirical attention has been directed at seeking forgiveness. We lay a theoretical base for the study of seeking forgiveness and report our initial study bearing on the concept. We investigate the potential role of some personality and developmental factors that might promote seeking forgiveness. Students ( N = 232) who indicated having transgressed against a partner …
Forgiving Usually Takes Time
Numerous accounts of research on promoting forgiveness in group settings have been published, indicating that forgiveness can be promoted successfully in varying degrees. Many have suggested that empathy-based interventions are often successful. It takes time to develop empathy for an offender. We report three studies of very brief attempts to promote forgiveness in psychoeducational group settings. The studies use ten-minute, one-hour, two-hour,…
Forgivingness, relationship quality, stress while imagining relationship events, and physical and mental health.
In all, 39 participants (19 male, 20 female) were classified as either happy (n = 19) or unhappy (n = 20) with a relationship. Baseline salivary cortisol was measured. Participants imagined (for a 5-min duration) scenes typical of their relationship, and salivary cortisol was measured again. Participants in unhappy relationships had higher cortisol reactivity (indicating higher stress) following the imagery. Cortisol reactivity was predicted by r…
Dispositional Forgivingness
Forgivingness is the disposition to forgive interpersonal transgressions over time and across situations. There is currently no acceptable measure of forgivingness for use in testing theoretical propositions. The authors describe a five-item scenario-based scale, the Transgression Narrative Test of Forgivingness (TNTF). In five studies examining 518 university students from three disparate universities, the authors assess the item and full-scale …
Forgiveness and Justice
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 challengin…
Psychology (122 obras) · Social Psychology (111 obras) · Forgiveness and Related Behaviors (73 obras) · Forgiveness (64 obras) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (63 obras) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (56 obras) · Psychotherapist (36 obras) · Developmental psychology (35 obras) · Clinical Psychology (34 obras) · Medicine (25 obras)