Psychometric And Experimental Investigation Of Impulsivity, Rumination, Revenge, And Forgiveness

PSYCHOMETRIC AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF IMPULSIVITY,RUMINATION, REVENGE, AND FORGIVENESSbyJASON DAVID YOUNGMay 2010Advisor: Dr. Sheldon AlexanderMajor: Psychology (Social)Degree: Doctor of PhilosophyRevenge and forgiveness are commonplace aspects of social interaction. Pastresearch has emphasized that rumination is an important cognitive correlate of bothrevenge and forgiveness. In the present research, we examined whether revengeattitudes and motivations, as well as forgiveness attitudes and tendencies might also bepredicted by impulsivity. Two studies were conducted to investigate these possibilities.In Study 1 participants (N = 200) completed individual differences measures ofimpulsivity, rumination, procedural and distributive just world beliefs, and measures ofrevenge, forgiveness and avoidance. Structural equation modeling revealed thatrumination predicted forgiveness tendencies, revenge motivations and avoidance.Additionally, revenge attitudes were found to mediate the relationship betweenimpulsivity and forgiveness tendencies, revenge motivations and avoidance. Study 2was an exploratory attempt to determine whether the self-report individual differencesmeasures used in Study 1 would predict participants’ reaction times on a modifiedStroop task. Specifically, participants (N = 145) completed the same self-reportmeasures used in Study 1. After completing the self-report measures, 100 participants