The Predictive Power of Undergraduates’ Personality Traits and Self-Esteem Regarding Their Forgiveness

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not the undergraduates’ personality traits and self-esteem predict their forgiveness. The study was conducted using a descriptive research designed as a relational survey method. The study group consists of 323 undergraduates, of whom 250 (77.2 %) are female and 73 (22.5%) are male. The Adjective Based Personality Scale (ABPT), developed by Bacanlı, İlhan & Arslan (2009), “Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale”, developed by Rosenberg (1965) and adapted to Turkish by Çuhadaroğlu (1986), and “Heartland Forgiveness Scale”, developed by Thompson, Snyder & Hoffman (2005) and adapted to Turkish by Bugay & Demir (2010), were used for data collection procedure. The results indicate that the undergraduates’ five-factor personality traits and self-esteem are correlated with their forgiveness levels. In addition, the undergraduates’ personality traits of openness, neuroticism and extroversion predict their forgiveness levels.

Keywords: Forgiveness, Self-Esteem, Personality, Traits