Conceptualizing Forgiveness, Granting Forgiveness, and Seeking Forgiveness: A Turkish-French Comparison

The study examined the validity of the Turkish versions of three forgiveness-related questionnaires: the Conceptualizations of Forgiveness Questionnaire, the Forgivingness Questionnaire, and the Disposition to Seek Forgiveness Questionnaire. These questionnaires were translated from English to Turkish. The study also compared Turkish and French participants’ scores on these scales. The sample comprised 252 students living in Turkey and 216 students living in France. The four-factor model of conceptualization of forgiveness, the three-factor model of forgivingness, and the three-factor model of disposition to seek forgiveness were shown to hold in a Turkish sample of students. The associations observed in previous studies between several subscales of these questionnaires were also found in the Turkish sample, thus providing additional evidence of the construct validity of the Turkish versions. Finally, it was shown that (a) the unconditional forgiveness and unconditional seeking of forgiveness mean scores were lower among the Turkish participants than among the French participants, and (b) the sensitivity to circumstances scores were higher among the Turkish participants than among the French participants.