Should I retaliate?: the role of aggression, forgivingness, moral responsibility, and social interest in the decision to return harm for harm
Year: 2003
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study examined the four constructs of forgivingness, aggression, \nmoral responsibility, and social interest as they impact retaliation among college \nstudents. There has been renewed research interest into the concept of \nforgivingness in the last ten to fifteen years. While forgiveness refers to the \npropensity to refrain from resentment or seeking revenge against an offender, \nforgivingness is defined as the tendency to engage in acts of forgiveness across \ntime and across situations. It is a trait or disposition. Research on aggression, \nmoral responsibility, and social interest has been ongoing for several decades. \nAggression refers to physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone. Moral \nresponsibility means the tendency to act morally, in accordance with generally \naccepted standards of right and wrong, even when others may choose to do \notherwise. Social interest is defined as having a sense of belonging to all of \nhumanity, such that one’s connections with others are focused solely on the \ncommon good of all. This study looks at these three constructs along with level \nof forgivingness as they relate to retaliation. Retaliation in this study was defined \nas taking back not only what was taken from oneself, but going beyond that, \ntaking more, in order to punish the other participant. Why people retaliate or \nrefrain from doing so is not completely clear, but this study shows that \nforgivingness and social interest each play a part in predicting level of retaliation. \nThese two constructs were predictors of the outcome variable; however, \naggression, moral responsibility, and membership in a group where harm was \ndone, intended, or neither, did not predict retaliation.
Author: Ann Lee Locasio
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2149270048