This project uses assessments, interviews, and group sessions. The study will incorporate men and women as a means to study if gender differences exist in forgiveness and if so to clarify those differences. This is a laboratory study involving 30 males and 30 females in an emotional imagery test. The other study will involve 100 males and female veterans who are seeking help. They will complete a clinic evaluation.
Forgiveness is thought to dramatically change the individual's biological homeostatic equilibrium.
He will assess the neurobiological response associated with forgiveness and unforgivingness. She hypothesized that we judge our own behavior less harshly because of our self-serving bias and because we know less about others than we do about ourselves. Her subject population for the study will include couples in romantic relationships, pre-existing social groups, and college students. Kenneth Ferraro, Ph.D. , in the Department of Sociology at Purdue University, will consider whether health protective behavior, social support, and religious consolation are other ways in which religion is related to health. This study will consider these three mechanisms as affecting health and well-being, and will also focus on forgiveness independent of the other mechanisms.