Hicks, Chay (2010) Hope and Types of Forgiveness as Predictors of Marital Satisfaction. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The aims of this study were to investigate the relationships between hope, forgiveness, and marital satisfaction, and to identify the contributions of hope and forgiveness in the prediction of marital satisfaction. The final sample included 90 participants (27 males, 63 females) aged between 25 and 72 years. They completed a questionnaire composed of a demographics section, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1976), as a measure of marital satisfaction; the Marital OffenceSpecific Forgiveness Scale (MOFS; Paleari, Regalia, & Fincham, 2009), and the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS; Thompson et al., 2005). The MOFS was included to measure state forgiveness, while the HFS assessed levels of different components of dispositional forgiveness; namely, forgiveness of self, others, and situations. Finally the Hope Scale (Snyder, 2002; Snyder et al., 1991), measured global hope. Analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between hope and marital satisfaction. Avoidance forgiveness, a component of the MOFS, had a significant negative relationship with marital satisfaction, such that those who avoided forgiving the transgressor reported lower marital satisfaction. Of the three components of dispositional forgiveness, only forgiveness of self had a positive correlation with marital satisfaction. Finally, hope positively correlated with all three types of forgiveness measured by the HFS. Hierarchical regression controlled first for age, which was found to significantly predict marital satisfaction. Of all remaining measures (i.e., hope and the different types of forgiveness), avoidance forgiveness was the only significant predictor of marital satisfaction. Overall, it was found that hope and forgiveness explained 20.6% of the variance in marital satisfaction. It was proposed that the development of a therapy targeting individuals with a tendency to avoid forgiveness, or to react negatively towards their partner after a harmful action, may assist to improve the marriage. Given the relationship found between age and marital satisfaction, it would be interesting to investigate this further, in order to determine if more specialised interventions should be considered for different age groups.
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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: | Passmore, Nola |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Jan 2026 02:11 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Jan 2026 02:11 |
| 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/52411 |
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