Structure And The Measurement On Trait Forgiveness Of College Students

Forgiveness is a reasearch focus in the field of the Positive Psychology. At present, the domestic research on forgiveness only stay on the level of theory introduction and translation of foreign measurements. But the study of forgiveness based on localized cultural is rare. Starting from the local culture and drawing on the basis of related studies, we developed a questionnaire of trait forgiveness of college students with Chinese charateristics, and analyzed the developmental characteristic of trait forgiveness of college students.This study combined top-down theoretical study and bottom-up empirical study, in order to explore localized structure of trait forgiveness of college students. On the basis, we comprehensively applied several methods, such as literature analysis, questionnaire survey, interviews, expert consultation, explorative factor analysis, confirmative factor analysis, etc., to study the trait forgiveness of college students. This study includes three parts:exploring the structure of trait forgiveness of college students, scale development of trait forgiveness of college students, and exploring the developmental characteristic of trait forgiveness of college students.At last, we obtained results as follows:(1) Trait forgiveness of college students contained four components:benevolence and generous, giving up the revenge, yieiding for reconciliation, empathy and understanding.(2) The questionnaire which was developed by author had good reliability and validity, which can be the scale tool for trait forgiveness of college students. (3) The trait forgiveness of college students was generally in a medium level, but some of college students were still in relatively low-level.(4) There was significant difference between gender, and female students were significantly higher than male students. Results showed that female students were significantly higher than male students in benevolence and generous, but obviously lower than male students in giving up the revenge.(5) The significant grade difference was found, and the freshmen scored significantly higher than the students of other three grades. In the dimensions of giving up the revenge, the freshmen scored obviously lower than the students of other three grades. But in yieiding for reconciliation, freshman scored higher than the sophomore and senior students.(6) There was no significant professional difference of trait forgiveness. But in the dimensions of benevolence and generous, the liberal arts college students scored significantly higher than the science and engineering students.(7) There was significant difference between only child and those who are not. In the three dimensions of benevolence and generous, yieiding for reconciliation and empathy and understanding, the students who have brothers and sisters scored higher than that of only child. But in giving up the revenge, the result was opposite.(8) There was significant family origin difference of college students’trait forgiveness, and the students’level of trait forgiveness from town and rural was higher than that from captial cities and medium-sized cities. In benevolence and generous, the students from rural scored higher than others. In giving up the revenge, the students from captial cities scored highest, and the students from rural scored lowest, and there was not significant difference between the students from medium-sized cities and town. In yieiding for reconciliation, the students from rural scored higher than those from captial cities. In empathy and understanding, The students from town and rural scored higher than those from captial cities and medium-sized cities.(9) Regional difference in trait forgiveness of college students was very significant, and the students in central and western region scored higher than the students in the east. In benevolence and generous, the college students in central and western region scored higher than those in eastern region. In giving up the revenge, the students in east region scored higher than those in central region, and the students in central region scored higher than those in western region. (10) There was significant difference in trait forgiveness of college students from different types of schools, and the college students from general universities scored significantly higher than those from key universities and vocational schools. Results showed that, in benevolence and generous, the college students from general universities scored significantly higher than those from key universities and vocational schools; in giving up the revenge, the college students from key universities scored significantly higher than those from general universities.(11) There was no significant difference in religious variable.