ABSTRACT

Based on the earlier studies. the cognitive change variables thatfacilitate forgiveness could be divided into 5 factors: f1(ascent insocial status), f2(solace by social comparison), f3(change inoffender), f4(death or deterioration in health), and f5(striving forhealing) in this study. The primary aim of this study was toconfirm the 5-factor structure in forgiving process, and thesecondary aim was to compare the relative levels in importanceamong the 5 cognitive change factors as a function of age.Participants were 419 men and 433 women who aged from 30 to84 years. They were asked to assess how much each cognitivechange factor affected their decisive acts of forgiving on 5-pointscale [0 (not at all) to 4 (very much)] if they had to forgivesomeone. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a reasonable fitindex for the 5-factor structure of the forgiveness-related questionnaire.Among the five factors, both f2 and f3 were found to beimportant, irrespective of the participants’ age, in their decisive actsof forgiving. The older the participants were, the more importantthe f1, f4 and f5 were come out in their decisive acts.