Orathinkal in conjunction with Burggraeave and Vansteenwegen composed the article. Forgiveness is presently a subject of enormous interest to psychologists. The authors define terms related to forgiveness that are exoneration, justification, mercy, excuse, and reconciliation. They are beneficial both to the counselor and to the client in that their understanding helps in promoting forgiveness. Through forgiveness, broken relationships can be amended. The purpose was first to view how the participants interviewed viewed forgiveness. The researchers also wanted to observe if the existent of a relationship between forgiveness perception and actual forgiveness.
Critique of results and discussion
The results of the first part of the study showed that forty percent (40%) did actually differentiate between forgiveness and reconciliation. The second part of the study showed that there exists a significant difference between the first married and remarried couples with some having a positive perception to forgiveness and the rest having a negative perception to forgiveness. The PPF and NPF were used in determining the respondent’s attitude on forgiveness. The researcher reported the results of their findings using tables. This was convenient and logical because of the numbers of the reported statistics. The results were then written in essay form. The essay used in the description of the results was easy to follow. The results were then presented inferentially. Descriptive statistics provided were in percentage form. An example was the EFI completed at 74%. The researchers also referred to the questions that were stated in the introduction. Thus, the results section was adequate as per my critique. Generally, the results were put in a way easily understood and comprehensible.
The article was lengthy. With the article being lengthy, the author was to include a brief summary of the start of the discussion section. The researchers failed in that the article lacked summary of the article purpose that should have been at the beginning of the discussion section.
They did an admirable job acknowledging the methodological flaws and the challenges that they encountered because of use of snow balling sampling technique and researcher developed test. Here, the researchers also discussed the implications for therapists and researchers. Summary of the article purpose was not included at the beginning of the discussion section. There were several suggestions on the use of results that included the use of the results in future researches planning, setting up of forgiveness therapies and programs promoting education.
At the same time, there were several future suggestions that were reviewed by the researchers. After rigorous research analysis, it was noted that the forgiveness topic was new to most scholars, and further research was desperately necessary. For future studies, transgressions such as infidelity and betrayal that needed forgiveness had to be focused. They also implied that the research questions on forgiveness should have been based on context rather than past experiences. Further, the researchers suggested that since forgiveness is subjective, qualitative research methodology was to be applied. Future research was to encompass the effect of the various types of transgressions on forgiveness. Through the research done and results provided, critical analysis of the research would present flaws in the first research which would help in ensuring such errors were not repeated in future studies. The work done on this area of result was satisfactory.
Critique of the entire article
According to my judgment, the problem selected was extremely appropriate. As a way to help various clients in overcoming perceived injustices forgiveness is a key requirement. In the world of social sciences worldwide, forgiveness is a thriving topic. Patients and therapists should clearly understand the terminologies that are associated with forgiveness. This is because through understanding the different terms they are able to understand and appreciate forgiveness. The main challenge is in accounting for all the deeds and activities that deserve forgiveness. Because the research was well carried out and the results well stated in the article, the journal was worthy of publication. During the research, the researchers were reflective and reflected on their sampling and the test measures that were used. They were also reflective on the interpretation of data methods used. Since this research ventured into a very new area of study, further researches are expected to be conducted as a way of improving the already carried out research. This is because this research only focuses on a small area of a wide scope that needs research. The research acted as a trigger to help in studying a new field of research.
Although the study was limited, the results of the study will help the affected in their decision-making. Religion and background color featured in the results. First sentence stated “forgiveness was considered to be something of a religious concern”. This is to show that worldwide forgiveness is viewed from a perspective of religion. In the EFI, there was a question on whether there was any relationship between forgiveness and religion. The researchers should also have provided the religious background of the participants. This would have helped in viewing the results from a different perspective. The follow up studies to be conducted have to be done through random sampling methods and consider various distinctions between people that range from socioeconomic class, religion, marital status, and age. In my own opinion, forgiveness varies from different people. Forgiving and actual forgiving are fundamentally different. Although the research was well published, a key methodology error could have been easily avoided. The researchers also did not use the best instrumentation as required. The study was also limited only to a small region in a single country. Widening the scope to other countries would have been of considerable significance to the results. The participants also did not provide enough information.
Follow up research improvement plan
Since the article was well published, follow up research conduction is highly possible. In the article, the article acknowledges that there were several limitations in the carrying out of the study. In the follow up study, a qualitative approach should be used due to the nature of forgiveness and perception towards it. This is because forgiveness is subjective in nature. The scale used in measuring perception and motivation, should be developed by an independent party and the researcher should not be the one to develop it. The concept of recalling experiences and events in measuring forgiveness should also be reviewed. The nature of the transgressions should also be included in the follow up study. This is because forgiveness varies depending on the nature of transgressions. Smaller transgressions like pouring water on the carpet are normally easy to forgive than larger transgressions like rape and murder.
