Assessment, Statistics, and Research

  Letting Go 2023 by Geoffrey Sutton & Bing Assessment name:   Attitudes Toward Forgiveness Scale (ATFS) Scale overview: The Attitudes Toward Forgiveness Scale is a 6-item measure of a person’s attitudes toward forgiveness. Author: Ryan P. Brown Response Type: 7-point rating scale of agreement from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. Sample Scale items     “I believe that forgiveness is a moral virtue.”     “It is admirable to be a forgiving person.” Psychometric properties Hall, Edwards, and Wang (2016) used the ATFS in a survey of college students. They omitted item 6 and reported Cronbach’s alpha of .69 for the other five items. Read more: The Psychology of Forgiveness Availability: Find the full list of 6 items in the 2003 PsycTESTS reference. Reference for the scale Brown, R. P. (2003). Attitudes Toward Forgiveness Scale [Database record]. Retrieved from PsycTESTS . doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/t09596-0...

  Assessment name:   Divine Forgiveness Scale Scale overview: Divine Forgiveness is a five-item self-report measure of a person’s perception of being forgiven by God. Authors: Frank Fincham and Ross May Response Type: The first 3 items are rated on a 4-point scale of agreement from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The last 2 item are rated on a scale of frequency of forgiveness from never to many times. Scale items See Fincham and May 2023, page 168 and 2019 page 3. “How often have you felt that God forgives you?” “I am certain that God forgives me when I seek His forgiveness” “Knowing that I am forgiven for my sins gives me the strength to face my faults and be a better person” “How often do you experience situations in which you have the feeling that God is merciful to you?” “How often do you experience situations in which you have the feeling that God delivers you from a debt?” Psychometric properties Refer to two Fincham and May publicatio...

  Assessment name:   Differentiated Process Scale of Self-forgiveness Scale overview: The Differentiated Process Scale of Self-forgiveness (DPSSF; Woodyatt & Wenzel, 2013) assesses three dimensions of self-forgiveness: Genuine self-forgiveness(GSF), pseudo-self-forgiveness (PSF), self-punishment (SP).   Authors: Lydia Woodyatt and Michael Wenzel   Response Type: Items are rated on a scale of agreement from 0 = Do not Agree at all, 3 = Neutral, and 6 = Strongly Agree. Scale items There are a total of 20 items divided among the three subscales as follows: GSF 1-7, SP 8-14, PSF 15-20. Psychometric properties Woodyatt and Wenzel (2013) reported adequate Cronbach’s alpha levels and positive correlations with empathy and self-esteem. Griffin (2016) reported strong internal consistency (alpha) values (GSF, 0.91; PSF, 0.80; SP 0.82). Griffin (2016) also reported significant positive correlations between the GSF and his Decisional Affirmation of Values...

  Assessment name:   Two-factor Self-Forgiveness Scale Scale overview: The Two-factor Self-Forgiveness Scale is a 10-item self-report measure of two factors of self-forgiveness: Decisional Affirmation of Values(DAV), Emotional Restoration of Esteem (ERE). The names of the two factors represent the dual-process model of self-forgiveness.   Read more about the concept of Self-Forgiveness Author:   Brandon Griffin   Response Type: Items are rated on a 7-point scale of agreement from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree. Scale items Each of the two factors are assessed based on responses to five items. DAV items focus on thoughts about one’s wrongdoing and ERE items assess feelings about oneself related to the wrongdoing. Psychometric properties Griffin provides extensive findings in his dissertation (2016). The first two studies support the two-factor structure. Study two includes evidence supporting criterion-related validity. Data analyse...

Scale name: Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) Scale overview A 12-item self-report assessment of interpersonal motivations related to forgiveness. This version has two subscales. The Avoidance subscale has 7 items and the Revenge subscale has 5 items. There is a related 7-item benevolence subscale measuring benevolent motivations to forgive. Authors: McCullough et al., 1998 Response Type All items are rated on a 5-point Likert-type rating. Subscales Avoidance, Revenge, plus Benevolence Sample items Avoidance: “I live as if he/she doesn’t exist, isn’t around,” Revenge: “I’ll make him/her pay,” Benevolence: “Even though his/her actions hurt me, I still have goodwill for him/ her” Reliability See McCullough et al. (1998) for details on the psychometric properties of the TRIM-12. Validity See McCullough et al. (1998) for details on the psychometric properties of the TRIM-12. Availability See the article in the APA PsycArticles Database or...

Measures of  Forgiveness and Restoration Scale names: Leadership Restoration Scales            Leadership Restoration Scale: Forgive and Restore (LRSF)            Leadership Restoration Scale: Restoration (LRSR)   Scales overview Two short scales measure two dimensions of congregants views on restoring a religious leader to ministry. One scale includes forgiveness (LRSF) and a second scale focuses exclusively on degrees of restoration without mentioning forgiveness (LRSR). Author(s) Sutton and Jordan (2013). Items The LRSF is a 3-item scale of forgiveness and restoration The LRSR is a 6-item scale of restoration Response Type A 7-point rating scale with anchors 1 = Very Strongly Agree and 7 = Very Strongly Disagree. See example below. Sample items The full scales can be found in Sutton and Jordan (2013) or can be downloaded here- see availability belo...