Understanding the psychological process of reparation and self-forgiveness has been an area of increased research interest over the last decade. Theoretical and empirical models have linked guilt, shame, self-oriented and other-oriented empathy, conciliatory behaviour and self-forgiveness together but there is a lack of clarity around the direction of their relationships. Most past research on this topic has focused on university student participants with little attention on other groups. The aim of this project is to investigate both an earlier proposed model and alternative new models and offer more information on what relationships appear to fit the data best among university students, to enable best comparison to existing findings. Moreover, we are extending the model to domestic violence perpetrators to better understand their psychological processes with the hope to offer guidance to intervention programs.

Researchers:

Anna Bornemisza, Professor Lisa Phillips, Professor Cathy Humphreys, Dr Kristin Diemer

Funders: University of Melbourne Scholarship Fund

Partners: The research data was obtained and used in collaboration with the Fathering Challenges project

Project Dates: The PhD is due for completion in 2019

Contact: Anna Bornemisza