Just How Healthy it is to Forgive

JUST HOW HEALTHY IT IS TO FORGIVE

Conventional wisdom says it is better to forgive than to seethe. Dr. Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet latest study may just prove how healthy it is to forgive.

The assistant professor of psychology at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, launches a two-year study this fall which will focus on the physiological effects of forgiveness on 60 students and 100 military veterans through a post-traumatic stress disorder clinic.

"Theorists, therapists and theologians alike have advanced the thesis that granting forgiveness is beneficial, and withholding forgiveness is detrimental for spiritual, psychological and physical health. But there is little data," says Witvliet.

In this project, she will focus on four key responses to "interpersonal violations." Those include remembering the hurt, holding a grudge/plotting revenge against the perpetrator, developing empathy for the perpetrator and granting forgiveness. She expects each of the four to either erode or enhance physical, spiritual and mental health.

She will study facial muscle tension, sweat, heart rate and blood pressure through electrodes hooked to a computer. She will monitor participants' responses to situations of personal emotional injury and compare responses with other, more frequently studied emotional responses such as happiness, sadness and anger. She will look at what happens physically, on a second-by second basis, as people mentally react to interpersonal hurts that happened to them in the past.

Witvliet expects the study, "Embodied Forgiveness: Empirical Studies of Cognitive, Emotional and Physical Dimensions of Forgiveness-Related Responses," will provide clues about the basic, immediate psycho-physiological impact of forgiveness-related responses. The study of combat veteran will highlight how forgiveness-related responses are related to cognitive, emotional, spiritual and physical health.

Witvliet received a $75,500 grant from the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation for the study. ###

Editors: This two-year study starts in the fall. Witvliet is at 616-395-7167/7730 (office). Tom Renner and Greg Olgers of Hope College's public relations office can help with any information you may need. They're at 616-395-7860. Please contact Steve Infanti of Dick Jones Communications at 814-867-1963 if you need any assistance. DJC helps Hope College with its national media affairs work.