An intervention designed to foster forgiveness was implemented with postabortion men. Participants were randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control (wait list) condition, which received treatment after a 12-week waiting period. Following treatment, the participants demonstrated a significant gain in forgiveness and significant reductions in anxiety, anger, and grief as compared with controls. Similar significant findings were evident among control participants after they participated in the treatment. Maintenance of psychological benefits among the 1st set of participants was demonstrated at a 3-month follow-up. Can men who identify themselves as having been hurt by abortion benefit from a structured psychological intervention designed to facilitate forgiveness? Other studies have used forgiveness interventions with elderly women (Hebl & Enright, 1993), parentally love-deprived college students (Al-Mabuk, Enright, & Cardis, 1995), and female incest survivors (Preedman & Enright, 1996). In these studies, forgiveness was associated with psychological benefits such as decreased anxiety and depression and increased hope and self-esteem. The interventions used in each of these studies were based on a process model of interpersonal forgiveness developed by Enright and the Human Development Study Group (1996). The model consists of 20 psychological variables and incorporates the affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of forgiveness. The essence of the model is this: After presenting a definition of forgiveness to the participants, we help them to express anger and examine how that anger may be influencing such issues as one's energy level and one's excessive focus on the past abortion experience. Second, the person chooses whether or not to consider forgiveness as an option to alleviating the anger. If so, forgiving is distinguished from such related concepts as condoning or excusing, forgetting, and reconciling (one may forgive, but not reconcile). Third, the person is asked to commit to forgiving, defined at this early point as refraining from revengeseeking. Next, the participant engages in the cognitive exercise of refraining, viewing the offending person as vulnerable and human. Then, empathy and compassion toward the offender, as affective counterparts to refraining, are given time to develop. Finally, the participant is encouraged to bear the pain caused by the event (Bergin, 1988), so as not to displace the anger onto others or to continue revenge-seeking. This study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention based on the model and designed to promote emotional healing among postabortion men. Research suggests that abortion may be a traumatic and stressful experience for some men, including anxi

No abstract

This research assesses the effects of a psychology of forgiveness pilot study on anger-recall stress induced changes in myocardial perfusion, forgiveness and related variables. Thirty-two patients were administered baseline rest and anger-recall stress imaging studies, and 17 of these participants who demonstrated anger-recall stress induced myocardial perfusion defects (forgiveness group, n = 9; control group, n = 8) were randomly assigned to a series of 10 weekly interpersonal forgiveness or control therapy sessions with a trained psychologist, and underwent additional anger-recall stress myocardial perfusion nuclear imaging studies post-test and at 10-week follow-up. Patients assigned to the forgiveness group showed significantly fewer anger-recall induced myocardial perfusion defects from pre-test to the 10-week follow-up as well as significantly greater gains in forgiveness from pre-test to post-test and from pre-test to follow-up compared to the control group. Forgiveness intervention may be an effective means of reducing anger-induced myocardial ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease.

The primary aim of this study was to compare the experience of an early abortion (1st trimester) to a late abortion (2nd and 3rd trimester) relative to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms after controlling for socio-demographic and personal history variables. Online surveys were completed by 374 women who experienced either a 1st trimester abortion (up to 12 weeks gestation) or a 2nd or 3rd trimester abortion (13 weeks gestation or beyond). Most respondents (81%) were U.S. citizens. Later abortions were associated with higher Intrusion subscale scores and with a greater likelihood of reporting disturbing dreams, reliving of the abortion, and trouble falling asleep. Reporting the pregnancy was desired by one's partner, experiencing pressure to abort, having left the partner prior to the abortion, not disclosing the abortion to the partner, and physical health concerns were more common among women who received later abortions. Social reasons for the abortion were linked with significantly higher PTSD total and subscale scores for the full sample. Women who postpone their abortions may need more active professional intervention before securing an abortion based on the increased risks identified herein. More research with diverse samples employing additional measures of mental illness is needed.

The purpose of this study was to examine associations between perceptions of preabortion counseling adequacy and partner congruence in abortion decisions and two sets of outcome variables involving relationship problems and individual psychological stress. Data were collected through online surveys from 374 women who had a prior abortion and 198 men whose partners had experienced elective abortion. For women, perceptions of preabortion counseling inadequacy predicted relationship problems, symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal, and meeting full diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with controls for demographic and personal/situational variables used. For men, perceptions of inadequate counseling predicted relationship problems and symptoms of intrusion and avoidance with the same controls used. Incongruence in the decision to abort predicted intrusion and meeting diagnostic criteria for PTSD among women with controls used, whereas for men, decision incongruence predicted intrusion, hyperarousal, meeting diagnostic criteria for PTSD, and relationship problems. Findings suggest that both perceptions of inadequate preabortion counseling and incongruence in the abortion decision with one's partner are related to adverse personal and interpersonal outcomes.