Fairness, forgiveness and grudge-holding: experimental studies with primary school children in New Zealand : thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Date
2009
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Massey University
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Abstract
Fairness, forgiveness and grudge-holding are concepts which underlie many
aspects of our interpersonal relationships. Fairness is the foundation of our day-to-day communication with others and forgiveness is concerned with a positive
strategy used to manage negative emotional experiences of underserved [i.e. undeserved] unfair
treatment. Grudge-holding results as an accumulation of negative feelings,
which are associated with the original experience of unfairness. Two
experimental studies investigated children’s perceptions of, feelings about, and
reactions towards the unfair behaviour of a mother and a friend, by individually
inviting the children to scenario-based interview sessions, which included three
imaginary tasks. The children were asked to judge the fairness of a mother and
a best friend’s treatment towards a child protagonist and to report their
associated feelings, after listening to a scenario that described an interaction
between a child and a mother and an interaction between a child and a friend.
They further responded to three scenario-based experimental tasks, regarding
their willingness to grant forgiveness, as opposed to expressions of hostility. In
the first study, the children’s willingness to forgive, as a result of unfairness, was
explored with 82 local primary school children in Palmerston North, New
Zealand, whose ages ranged from 8- to 11-years-old, in addition to 50 parents
of these participating children. The parents also completed a questionnaire
about their approaches to their children’s common misbehaviours. The study
found that the children were typically willing to grant forgiveness to a mother,
even though she had been unfair. Their forgiveness tendencies were not related
to aspects of parental disciplinary behaviour. However, an examination of the children’s verbatim responses through the use of thematic analysis revealed the
complex nature of the relationship between parent and child concerning
tolerance for mistakes. In the second study, I explored on whether the children’s
repeated exposure to unfairness would contribute to their display of grudge-holding
against a mother or a best friend in the scenarios and this investigation
involved 55 local primary children, whose ages ranged from 8- to 12-years-old,
in Wellington, New Zealand. The children participated in individual scenario-based
interview sessions, which included three imaginary tasks over the two
time periods, one week apart from each other. The children’s levels of grudge-holding
was measured by analysing the possible increase in hostility, which the
children expressed from Time 1 to Time 2. The study showed that a repeated
experience of unfairness had a noticeable effect on the children’s level of
hostility towards the person who was unfair and especially towards the best
friend. The children’s verbatim comments also suggested some evidence of
accumulated negativity in their responses to an unfairness experience. Thus,
this study proved to be a suitable paradigm for operationalising grudge-holding
in children.
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Keywords
Interpersonal relationships, Negative feelings