Fogarty, Bronwyn (2008) Dispositional Forgiveness and Social Skills as Predictors of Social Loneliness. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The consideration of dispositional forgiveness, social skills and social loneliness is a complex, yet neglected undertaking, which has the potential to improve quality of life for many people. Previous research has investigated the relationships between the constructs of social skills and social loneliness. Very little is currently known however, about the collective effects of social skills and dispositional forgiveness in predicting social loneliness in community adult populations. Accordingly, the aims of the present study were to investigate the relationships between social skills, dispositional forgiveness, and social loneliness and to examine the contributions of forgiveness and social skills to the prediction of social loneliness, after controlling for age and gender. There were 144 participants (51 male, 90 female, 3 gender not stated), aged between 18 and 65 years, who reside in Australia. The Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ) was used within the current study to examine social skills in relation to same-sexed friendships and acquaintances only (Buhrmester, Furman, Wittenberg, & Reis, 1988). The Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS) was used to assess participants’ levels of dispositional forgiveness (Yamhure-Thompson et al., 2005). The social subscale of the short version of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (SELSA-S) was used to assess participants’ feelings of loneliness within the social domain (DiTommaso, Brannen, & Best, 2004). These three measures were incorporated within a paper-based questionnaire package completed by participants. Pearson product-moment correlations revealed a number of significant relationships. Social loneliness was significantly and negatively correlated with all social skills measures (i.e., initiation, negative assertion, disclosure, emotional support, and conflict management). Forgiveness of self, others, and situations were found to all have significant negative correlations with social loneliness. The three forgiveness variables also had significant, positive correlations with the initiation and conflict management social skill subscales, but not with negative assertion, disclosure, or emotional support. Negative assertion showed significant, positive correlations with forgiveness of self and forgiveness of situations, but not forgiveness of others. A hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated that despite the overall model being significant when the dispositional forgiveness variables were added to the equation, and the effects of age and gender were controlled for, the forgiveness variables did not make a significant unique contribution above and beyond social skills to the prediction of social loneliness. Initiation was the only significant social skill in terms of making a unique contribution to social loneliness. Future research could investigate possible mediation effects between the three variables examined within the current study, in addition to other demographic characteristics such as employment and socioeconomic status. Also, instead of relying upon self-report measures, studies could incorporate other methods of assessment, such as peer ratings, observer ratings, specific social skills scenario interviews, and an assessment procedure conducted in a controlled setting, in order to extend the work to incorporate others’ perceptions. Improvements to instruments to ensure that they are gender fair is essential, as social loneliness may be perceived differently by men and women, and little is known about gender differences in relation to forgiveness. Finally, it may prove beneficial to discern the stages or lengths of social relationships, as different social skills may be more important at some stages than others.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Nola Passmore |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Nov 2025 23:19 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Nov 2025 23:19 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52323 |
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