Investigation of forgiving traits of prospective teachers in terms of self-compassion and self-esteem

In this research, the relationship between forgiving traits, self-compassion and self-esteem of prospective teachers and the difference of these three variables according to some sociodemografic variables were investigated. The universe is consisted of all prospective teachers attending to Faculty of Buca Education in Dokuz Eylul University during 2012-2013 academic year. The sample of research is consisted of 269 female and 131 male, totally 400 prospective teachers. Data was collected by Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Self-Compassion Scale, Arıcak Self Esteem Scale and a questionnaire which was developed by the researcher. Data was analyzed by using SPSS 20 programme. When the normal theory assumptions can be provided, the data analyzed by Independent Sample t Test and One ?Way ANOVA; when the normal theory assumptions cannot be provided the data analyzed by Mann Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H. For correlation analysis, Pearson and Spearman Brown analysis were used. According to results, it was found that there are statistically significant positive relationships between forgiving traits, self-compassion and self-esteem of prospective teachers. Besides there are positive relationships between forgiveness subscales and positive self-compassion subscales (self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness) and there are negative relationships between forgiveness subscales and negative self-compassion subscales (self-judgment, isolation, over-identification). Similarly, there were positive relationships between self-esteem and positive self-compassion subscales (self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness) and there were negative relationships between self-esteem and negative self-compassion subscales (self-judgment, isolation, over-identification). Results showed that, according to age, field of education, status of happiness, perceived father?s attitude, and status of having psychological problem, there is a statistically significant difference on the grade of total forgiveness of prospective teachers. According to gender, class, place where one lives most, number of sibling, parent?s education status, parent?s employment status, perceived mother?s attitude, monthly income of family, perceived level of economic status, and status of asking others for help when there is a problem, there is no statistically significant difference on the grade of total forgiveness of prospective teachers. According to age, class, status of happiness, perceived parent?s attitude, and status of having psychological problem, there is a statistically significant difference on self-compassion of prospective teachers. However, according to gender, field of education, place which one lives most, status of having romantic relationship, number of sibling, parent?s education status, parent?s employment status, monthly income of family, perceived economic status, status of asking others for help when there is a problem and status of getting psychological help , there is no statistically significant difference on self-compassion of prospective teachers. According to gender, class, status of happiness, mother?s education status, perceived parent?s attitude, status of having psychological problem, there is statistically significant difference on self- esteem of prospective teachers. According to age, place which one lives most, number of sibling, father?s education status, parent?s employment status, monthly income of family, perceived economic status, status of asking others for help when there is a problem, and status of getting psychological help, there is no statistically significant difference on self-esteem of prospective teachers. Moreover, the grade of forgiveness subscales and self-compassion subscales were investigated in terms of sociodemografic variables. Key Words: Forgiveness, self-compassion, self-esteem and prospective teachers.