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Forgiveness in Younger, Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Age and Gender Matters

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Abstract

The present study investigated age and gender differences in forgiveness of real-life transgressions. Emerging and young, middle-aged, and older adults recalled the most recent and serious interpersonal transgression and then completed the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory (TRIM-18), which measured their avoidance, revenge, and benevolence motivation toward an offender and indicated to what extent they are generally concerned with the subject of forgiveness. The results revealed a trend among middle-aged adults to express more avoidance than younger adults. Moreover, young men had a greater motivation to seek revenge than middle-aged and older men. No such age differences were apparent for women. Additionally, forgiveness was a more manifest subject in everyday life for middle-aged adults and women. These findings emphasize the importance of age and gender when investigating forgiveness.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a research grant from the University of Zurich (Forschungskredit 2005) to the second author. The authors would like to extend their special thanks to Catherine Ghaemmaghami, Assad Ghaemmaghami and Roberto La Marca for their valuable comments on this manuscript and also to Vicki Annaheim and Barbara Stauffer for rating the findings of the qualitative data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14, Box 26, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland

    Pearl Ghaemmaghami

  2. Department of Psychology, Gerontopsychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14, Box 24, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland

    Mathias Allemand & Mike Martin

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  1. Pearl Ghaemmaghami
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  2. Mathias Allemand
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Correspondence to Pearl Ghaemmaghami or Mathias Allemand.

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Ghaemmaghami, P., Allemand, M. & Martin, M. Forgiveness in Younger, Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Age and Gender Matters. J Adult Dev 18, 192–203 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-011-9127-x

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