Self-Forgiveness by Frank D Fincham and Julie H Hall - Article Example

Self-Forgiveness by Frank D. Fincham and Julie H. Hall. This paper is a journal article review critically analysing the article "Self-Forgivenes: the Stepchild of Forgiveness Research," which was published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology in 2005. The article was written by Frank D. Fincham and Julie H. Hall. The first session of the review will a brief summary of the journal, the second part will offer a reflection of the article, that is, my initial response to the article regarding its study design, key insights gained from the article, what makes the article interesting and any other readings that I might plan to do based upon have read the article, and the final part will discuss how the information gained from this paper might be implemented. Summary This article was aimed at promoting further research and study into forgiveness. The journal article discloses the differences, as well as the similarities, between intrapersonal and interpersonal forgiveness and argues that more study has been carried out in the interpersonal field than intrapersonal, or, in other words, self-forgiveness (Hall & Fincham, 2005). The two authors claim in the work that not unless an offense has been done, there is no reason or need for forgiveness at all. An offense can be regarded as a serious action, which harms other individuals; therefore, intrapersonal harm has, by all means, been committed (Hall & Fincham, 2005). The authors also argue that an offense can be deemed intrapersonal since any harmful action also harms the perpetrator in some way, (that is if the offense is deemed as a harmful act) since the guiltiness or remorse that the perpetrator might feel impacts his/her own self perception negatively (Hall & Fincham, 2005). Endeavours that impact only the wrongdoer, for instance self-harm, would be regarded intrapersonal. Self-forgiveness uses the notion that an individual has to identify the offense either to self or others, de-personalise the behaviour act the person committing it and endorsement of the independence of the individual from the act so as to come to terms with it and self-forgiveness. This is like act that I did was bad, but I, myself, am not bad. The self-forgiveness element free the perpetrator from self damnation and also opens that path to constructive progression in a somewhat more healthy route. This journal entry also describes the constructive results that might arise due to self-forgiveness, as well as the likelihood of pseudo-self-forgiveness, wherein the wrongdoer does not acknowledge the depth of his or her offensive behaviour, and; therefore, in a state of self-denial, wherein true self-forgiveness cannot be attained (Hall & Fincham, 2005). Reflection In this article, the authors uses a qualitative research method to come up with their findings. They offered a conceptual analysis of self–forgiveness wherein they defined and distinguished it from interpersonal forgiveness, as well as pseudo self-forgiveness. Their study design was non-experimental incorporating the relational design. A relational design measures a range of variables. The variables measured in Hall & Fincham's (2005) study were the effects of lack of self-forgiveness on empathy, attribution, transgression, guilt, severity, shame, perceived forgiveness from victim, or greater power and conciliatory behaviour. It is significant to clarify here that these correlations do not mean causation, but rather acknowledge dependence or reliance of one variable on another. For example, guilt might be caused by lack of self-forgiveness but lack of self-forgiveness might not be caused by guilt (Hall & Fincham, 2005). The authors claim that people might still move on feeling okay with no self-forgiveness if they lack the guilt of their behaviour, but might not be able to move on if they have feel guilty of their behaviour. Therefore, self-forgiveness is significant in order to move on with life after a tragic event. The advantages of this study design are that it requires low-efforts because it only had two researchers; non-invasive in that it hardly ever lead to any ethical issues with the research population. The main disadvantages are that they study is shallow because it only has two researchers and that provision of correction is limited. The insights I gained from the article are reflected in the research design and also a few others. One insight is that people might not be able to move forward with life if the let the guilt of the acts eat them up. The authors used the example of maybe a family member committing suicide and one member thinking that it is them who caused his or her sibling or son or daughter to committee suicide. The authors advise that these situations are normal and they only way one can avoid such a situation affecting him or her is deciding to forgive themselves for whatever it is they think they did (Hall & Fincham, 2005). Another insight I gained from the article is that self–forgiveness can, as well, apply to situations wherein the only prey of one’s action is the self. The authors claim that there are countless scenarios wherein people cause harm on themselves (“let myself down”) and these vary from academic failures (for example, failing in an examination due to the lack of preparation) to social failures (for instance, failing to be suitably assertive) (Hall & Fincham, 2005). The final insight that I got was that people can differentiate forgiving the self for the harm, which arises from a specific act from forgiving the self for the harm, which arises from identifying any character fault underlying the behaviour (for “being the kind of individual who behaves like this”). It is thought that linking the behaviour to a character defect is more probable to the level that there is a past of comparable behaviour plus that self–forgiveness is likewise much harder to attain under these conditions (Hall & Fincham, 2005). The article has some insightful references, which can help in understanding the topic more (Hall & Fincham, 2005). I plan to carry out my own small research on people who seem to be affected by faults of their past and how they are living now. Also, I would will look at people how did wrong things in the past and decided to forgive themselves and see how they are living now. Finally, I will look at the essence of forgiveness in order to understand why it is so much important in life. Application of the Information There are many people who are overly affected by the wrong things that they have done in their lives, some of who have managed to move forward from this effect and some of who have not managed to surpassed this effect. As a church pastor, I counsel a lot of individuals who come to me with their problems such as drug abuse, alcoholism, sexual additions such as pornography, regret and many other issues. Knowing what I know now about self-forgiveness and the reasons why I discover why these people are faced with these issues, I think self-forgiveness can be a key factor in resolving these issues. Most of my alcoholic advisees actually became alcoholics because of the regrets they had in life. For instance, one of them was a father whose child had committed suicide as left behind a note saying that it was because of the pressure the father was putting on him to succeed in school why he decided to take away his life, so the father thought that it was his fault that his son had committed suicide. However, by persuading the father to self-forgive him/herself, it will allow him to reflect that he was actually performing his role as a father by wanting the child to succeed in school. The main problem was on the child for not facing his father to tell him what he was feeling. Conclusion This article is overly influential. It taught me the importance of self-forgiveness and now I plan to advertise what I read to my peers. However, I would like to recommended for further research into these field, which will allow people to have a variety of sources to understand the essence of self-forgiveness. Reference Hall, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (2005). Self–forgiveness: The stepchild of forgiveness research. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24(5), 621-637. Read More