Approach and avoidance motives as moderators of the association between forgiveness and relationship satisfaction
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Forgiveness may be essential to help couples navigate the inevitable hurts and transgressions in relationships.Yet forgiveness may come with costs (e.g., increased exposure to negative behaviours), at least in some contexts.As such, understanding when forgiveness yields benefits is crucial for helping couples thrive.Relationship motives (i.e., underlying reasons that drive relational behaviours) may be a lens through which people interpret relational processes and a context in which prosocial processes such as forgiveness operate.I investigated whether the positive association between forgiveness and relationship satisfaction was strengthened by forgivers' approach (i.e., to gain desired outcomes such as increased connection) and weakened by avoidance (i.e., to avoid negative outcomes such as conflict) motives.I examined hypotheses in 128 cohabitating male-female couples over one year using multilevel models and the actor-partner interdependence framework.Unexpectedly, the contemporaneous association between forgiveness and women's relationship satisfaction was strengthened with increased avoidance motives and weakened with decreased approach motives.Over time, as predicted, women's forgiveness buffered declines in their relationship satisfaction, though the positive effect of forgiveness on relationship satisfaction increased as women's approach relationship motives decreased, contrary to expectations.For women, approach motives and forgiveness appear to be complementary, and strength in one can compensate for weakness in the other.Thus, women's forgiveness may be a particularly effective strategy in maintaining their satisfaction when they tend to have few approach relationship motives.
Source: Summit (Simon Fraser University)
Author: Cai, Nicolle
Institution: University of British Columbia
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7139171927