Social Cognition and Personality Factors as Predictors of Interpersonal Forgiveness

Forgiveness might play an important role on romantic relationships because it has the ability to manage conflicts and has an impact on individual’s well-being. However, forgiveness can be influenced by individual personality traits and social cognitive skills. Hereby, the current study analysed forgiveness on romantic relationships based on personality traits (agreeableness and neuroticism) and social cognitive skills (cognitive flexibility, self-reflection and insight). The recent study had a sample of 268 (140 female, 128 male) Turkish speaking university students. The participants completed Big Five Inventory, Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, Self- Reflection/Insight Scale and Marital Forgiveness Scale. It was predicted that agreeable individuals would show high forgiveness levels whereas individuals with high neuroticism would show low forgiveness levels. Increased cognitive flexibility, self-reflection and insightfulness predicted high forgiveness levels. Also, it was hypothesized that female participants would show higher forgiveness levels than males. However, findings of the current study yielded no gender difference on forgiveness levels. Furthermore, agreeable individuals pointed high forgiveness levels for both genders. In contrast, neuroticism marginally predicted low forgiveness levels for female participants. Among social cognitive skills, only cognitive flexibility predicted forgiveness levels among female participants. On the other hand, social cognitive skills did not predict forgiveness among male participants. Findings were discussed in accordance with socialization and young adulthood.