When God disappoints: Difficulty forgiving God and its role in negative emotion

Journal of Health Psychology

Volumn 4, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 365-379

  Exline, Julie Juola ^b   Yali, Ann Marie ^c   Lobel, Marci ^a  

^a STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c NONE

Author keywords

Coping; Forgiveness; Negative affect; Religion; Trauma

Indexed keywords

ADULT; AGED; ANGER; ANXIETY; ARTICLE; ATTITUDE; DEPRESSION; EMOTION; FEMALE; HUMAN; MALE; MOOD; NORMAL HUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; RELIGION; WELLBEING;

EID: 0032787738     PISSN: 13591053     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/135910539900400306     Document Type: Article

References (62)

1. Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432-443.
2. Al-Mabuk, R. H., Enright, R. D., & Cardis, P. A. (1995). Forgiveness education with parentally love-deprived late adolescents. Journal of Moral Education, 24, 427-444.
3. Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
4. Bauer, L., Duffy, J., Fountain, E., Halling, S., Holtzer, M., Jones, E., Leifer, M., & Rowe, J. O. (1992). Exploring self-forgiveness. Journal of Religion and Health, 31, 149-160.
5. Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., & Brown, G. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 893-897.
6. Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelsohn, M., Moch, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561-571.
7. Blaine, B., & Crocker, J. (1995). Religiousness, race, and psychological well-being: Exploring social psychological mediators. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1031-1041.
8. Boon, S. D., & Sulsky, L. M. (1997). Attributions of blame and forgiveness in romantic relationships: A policy-capturing study. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 12(1), 19-44.
9. Coyle, C. T., & Enright, R. D. (1998). Forgiveness intervention with post-abortion men. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 1042-1046.
10. Darby, B. W., & Schlenker, B. R. (1982). Children's reactions to apologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 742-753.
11. Dobson, J. (1993). When God doesn't make sense. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
12. Downey, G., Silver, R. C., & Wortman, C. B. (1990). Reconsidering the attribution-adjustment relation following a major negative event: Coping with the loss of a child. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 925-940.
13. Enright, R. D., & the Human Development Study Group (1996). Counseling within the forgiveness triad: On forgiving, receiving forgiveness, and self-forgiveness. Counseling and Values, 40, 107-126.
14. Enright, R. D., Eastin, D. L., Golden, S., Sarinopoulos, I., & Freedman, S. R. (1992). Interpersonal forgiveness within the helping professions: An attempt to resolve differences of opinion. Counseling and Values, 36, 84-103.
15. Enright, R. D., Santos, M. J., & Al-Mabuk, R. (1989). The adolescent as forgiver. Journal of Adolescence, 12, 99-110.
16. Exline, J. J., Yali, A. M., & Sanderson, W. C. (in press). Comfort and strain in religious life: Associations with mental health. Journal of Clinical Psychology.
17. Fenell, D. L. (1993). Characteristics of long-term first marriages. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 15, 446-460.
18. Foster, R. A., & Keating, J. P. (1992). Measuring androcentrism in the western God concept. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 366-375.
19. Freedman, S. R., & Enright, R. D. (1996). Forgiveness as an intervention goal with incest survivors. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 983-992.
20. Gartner, J. (1996). Religious commitment, mental health, and prosocial behavior: A review of the empirical literature. In E. P. Shafranske (Ed.), Religion and the clinical practice of psychology (pp. 187-214). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
21. Greeley, A. W. (1989). Religious change in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22. Greenwald, D. F., & Harder, D. W. (1994). Sustaining fantasies and psychopathology in a normal sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50(5), 707-710.
23. Hargrave, T. D., & Sells, J. N. (1997). The development of a forgiveness scale. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 23(1), 41-62.
24. Hebl, J. H., & Enright, R. D. (1993). Forgiveness as a psychotherapeutic goal with elderly females. Psychotherapy, 30, 658-667.
25. Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, W. R., Jr., McCullough, M. E., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., & Zinnbauer, B. J. (1998). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. Manuscript submitted for publication.
26. Holbrook, M. I., White, M. H., & Hutt, M. J. (1995). The Vengeance Scale: Comparison of groups and an assessment of external validity. Psychological Reports, 77, 224-226.
27. Hunsberger, B., McKenzie, B., Pratt, M., & Pancer, S. M. (1993). Religious doubt: A social psychological analysis. In M. L. Lynn & D. O. Moberg (Eds.), Research in the social scientific study of religion (Vol. 5, pp. 27-51). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
28. King, M. B., & Hunt, R. A. (1975). Measuring the religious variable: National replication. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 14, 13-22.
29. Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1998). God as a substitute attachment figure: A longitudinal study of adult attachment style and religious change in college students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 961-973.
30. Kushner, H. S. (1983). When bad things happen to good people. New York: Avon.
31. Larson, D. B., Sherrill, K. A., Lyons, J. S., Craigie, F., Jr., Thielman, S. B., Greenwold, M. A., & Larson, S. S. (1992). Associations between dimensions of religious commitment and mental health reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry and Archives of General Psychiatry: 1978-1989. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 557-559.
32. Lehman, D. R., Wortman, C. B., & Williams, A. F. (1987). Long-term effects of losing a spouse or child in a motor vehicle crash. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 218-231.
33. Levin, J. S., & Schiller, P. L. (1987). Is there a religious factor in health? Journal of Religion and Health, 26, 9-36.
34. Levin, J., & Vanderpool, H. (1987). Is religious attendance really conducive to better health? Toward an epidemiology of religion. Social Science and Medicine, 24, 589-600.
35. Lysak, H., Rule, B. G., & Dobbs, A. R. (1989). Conceptions of aggression: Prototype or defining features? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 233-243.
36. Mauger, P. A., Perry, J. E., Freeman, T., Grove, D. C., McBride, A. G., & McKinney, K. E. (1992). The measurement of forgiveness: Preliminary research. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 11, 170-180.
37. McCullough, M. E. (1998). Forgiveness as a classical human strength: Theory, measurement, and links to well-being. Paper presented at the conference, 'Classical Sources of Human Strength: Appraising the Evidence', Ellicott City, MD, December.
38. McCullough, M. E., Pargament, K. I., & Thoresen, C. (in press). Forgiveness. New York: Guilford.
39. McCullough, M. E., Rachal, K. C., Sandage, S. J., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Brown, S. W., & Hight, T. L. (in press). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships II: Theoretical elaboration and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
40. McCullough, M. E. Sandage, S. J., & Worthington, E. L., Jr. (1997). To forgive is human: How to put your past in the past. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
41. McCullough, M. E., & Worthington, E. L., Jr., (1994). Encouraging clients to forgive people who have hurt them: Review, critique, and research prospectus. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 22(1), 3-20.
42. McCullough, M. E., Worthington, E. L., Jr., & Rachal, K. C. (1997). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 321-336.
43. Moon, G. W. (in press). 'Forgiving' God: Initially it may be a matter of heart over head. Marriage and Family: A Christian Journal.
44. Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York: Guilford.
45. Pargament, K. I., Ensing, D. S., Falgout, K., Olsen, H., Reilly, B., Van Haitsma, K., & Warren, R. (1990). God help me: I. Coping efforts as predictors of the outcomes to significant negative life events. American Journal of Community Psychology, 18, 793-824.
46. Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. (1998). Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 710-724.
47. Pargament, K. I., Zinnbauer, B. J., Scott, A. B., Butter, E. M., Zerowin, J., & Stanik, P. (1998). Red flags and religious coping: Identifying some religious warning signs among people in crisis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54(1), 77-89.
48. Rando, T. A. (1993). Treatment of complicated mourning. Champaign, IL: Research Press.
49. Rizzuto, A.-M. (1979). The birth of the living God: A psychoanalytic study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
50. Rizzuto, A.-M. (1996). Psychoanalytic treatment and the religious person. In E. P. Shafranske (Ed.), Religion and the clinical practice of psychology (pp. 409-431). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
51. Sells, J. N., & Hargrave, T. D. (1998). Forgiveness: A review of the theoretical and empirical literature. Journal of Family Therapy, 20, 21-36.
52. Spielberger, C. D., Jacobs, G., Russell, S., & Crane, R. S. (1983). Assessment of anger: The state-trait anger scale. In J. N. Butcher & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Advances in personality assessment (Vol. 2, pp. 161-189). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
53. Spilka, B., & Schmidt, G. (1983). General attribution theory for the psychology of religion: The influence of event-character on attributions to God. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 22, 326-339.
54. Strawbridge, W. J., Cohen, R. D., Shema, S. J., & Kaplan, G. A. (1997). Frequent attendance at religious services and mortality over 28 years. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 957-961.
55. Weinberg, N. (1994). Self-blame, other-blame, and desire for revenge: Factors in recovery from bereavement. Death Studies, 18, 583-593.
56. Weiner, B. (1985). 'Spontaneous' causal thinking. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 74-84.
57. Williams, R., & Williams, V. (1993). Anger kills. New York: Random House.
58. Worthington, E. L., Jr. (Ed.). (1998). Dimensions of forgiveness. Radnor, PA: John Templeton Foundation Press.
59. Worthington, E. L., Jr., DuPont, P. D., Berry, J. T., & Duncan, L. A. (1988). Christian therapists' and clients' perceptions of religious psychotherapy in private and agency settings. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 16, 282-293.
60. Yancey, P. (1977). Where is God when it hurts? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
61. Yancey, P. (1988). Disappointment with God: Three questions no one asks aloud. New York: Harper Collins.
62. Zelin, M. L., Bernstein, S. B., Heijn, C., Jampel, R. M., Myerson, P. G., Adler, G., Buie, D. H., Jr., & Rizzuto, A. M. (1983). The Sustaining Fantasy Questionnaire: Measurement of sustaining functions of fantasies in psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Personality Assessment, 47, 427-439.