Forgiveness within the Big Five personality model

Research has begun to explore the relationship of dispositional forgiveness to personality traits [McCullough, M. E., Rachal, K. C., Sandage, S. J., Worthington Jr., E. L., Brown, S. W., & Hight, T. L. (1998). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships II: theoretical elaboration and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(6), 1586–1603.]. Personality research has generally focused on the Big Five model of personality, but there is evidence that prediction in personality is aided by using the underlying primary factors of the Big Five. This study examined, in students from religious and public universities, the relationships of five and 16 factors of personality to four dimensions of dispositional forgiveness — forgiveness of others, receiving others’ forgiveness, forgiveness of self, and receiving God’s forgiveness. The results confirmed that personality, particularly neuroticism versus emotional stability, correlates with many aspects of dispositional forgiveness, and that the use of a greater number of personality factors aids in understanding dispositional forgiveness.