Forgiveness and Subjective Well-Being: Discussing Mechanisms, Contexts, and Rationales

Abstract

Forgiveness often is discussed as a release of negative emotions or intentions for revenge against a transgressor. Given this focus, some may forget the profound benefits that forgiveness may hold for personal well-being. The current chapter reviews the literature on forgiveness and subjective well-being, in order to help motivate a new model that advances our understanding of why forgiveness can prove beneficial to the self. Our model focuses on how forgiveness helps to scaffold one’s social systems and self-concept, which then may portend greater subjective well-being. Given the relative paucity of extant work, compared to the literature on how forgiveness attenuates the “bad,” we discuss a number of future directions for the field emanating from our proposed model.