A needs-based perspective on self-forgiveness: Addressing threat to moral identity as a means of encouraging interpersonal and intrapersonal restoration ¬リニ

• Affirmed violated values led to increased shame, increasing self-forgiveness. • This process led to increased reconciliation and self-trust. • Belonging and unrelated value affirmation did not show these effects. • This model was shown across two intervention studies with one week follow-up. • The model shows lagged effects of self-forgiveness on restoration. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Offender Moral identity Self-forgiveness Need for belonging Shame Values Committing an offense creates psychological need within a victim and offender that can act as barriers to reconciliation. This paper examines the process of an offender addressing these needs independent of a victim's response in order to facilitate a process of self-forgiveness that promotes reconciliation and self-trust. We present two studies involving interventions following recent real-life interpersonal transgressions. Results suggest that meeting an offender's need for moral identity through the affirmation of the values violated by the offense, but not affirmation of belonging (Study 1), or affirmation of unrelated values (Study 2) increased genuine self-forgiveness, through shame acknowledgment. This process had downstream benefits for reconciliation and self-trust at one week follow-up. Introduction Sometimes the solutions will require acknowledgment of past mistakes, and acceptance of insights for which none of our learning has prepared us. Reconciliation requires changes of heart and spirit … It requires symbolic as well as practical action (Fraser, 2003). All of us know what it is to be a transgressor. We hurt others, sometimes in minor, and other times in major ways. Words yelled in an argument , thoughtlessness, trust broken, respect violated. Moving past our transgressions in ways that benefit not only ourselves, but also those we have hurt, is at the heart of theories of reconciliation and restorative justice (Braithwaite, 1989). Models of reconciliation suggest that after an offense both the offender and the victim have psychological needs that, if unaddressed, can form barriers to this restorative process occurring. In particular, research suggests that a victim experiences real and symbolic threat resulting in a heightened need for agency (SimanTov-Nachlieli, Shnabel, & Nadler, 2013), including an increased need for status and power, and a need for the offender to reaffirm the values violated by the offense as well as the shared identity these represent On the other hand, research has shown that an offender has a heightened need for communion, acceptance, and belonging, expressing …