A First Test of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure as a Measure of Forgiveness of Self and Others

The current study was largely exploratory and sought to begin the development of a measure of implicit forgiveness of self related to "minor" transgressions (mistakes, flaws, shortcomings) versus the forgiveness of others. Forty-seven students completed a scale designed to measure forgiveness of self and others using the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP). The results indicated that the measure of implicit forgiveness diverged from an explicit measure designed to measure the same construct. The key finding was that participants tended to be more forgiving toward themselves than toward others at an implicit level, but on an explicit measure, participants rated their own failures as less acceptable than the failures of others. Overall, the findings suggest that it may be useful to supplement explicit measures of forgiveness with implicit measures in future research.