GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO (PEACEFULLY) WAIT: TOWARD A THEORY OF PATIENCE

Patience is among the most common colloquially known virtues, and yet its empirical attention is among the smallest of all virtues. In this dissertation, I focused on the conscientiousness-based virtue of patience in terms of theory and intervention. In my first study, I examined the effects of a preliminary intervention workbook designed to promote patience. In my second study, I examined a number of correlates informed by patience literature as potential antecedents, mechanisms, and outcomes of patience and, using structural equation modeling, present a theory of patience. Finally, in my third study, I beta tested the patience intervention workbook along with outcome measures posited in my proposed theory of patience in order to examine this theory under experimental and longitudinal design. In Study 1, the patience workbook did indeed produce higher patience outcomes at post-test relative to the control condition but was not significantly different from a positivity workbook condition. Participants in the patience workbook condition also improved in trait self-control, trait forgivingness, and trait negativity. In Study 2, familiarity with an identified stressor and perceived stress related to that stressor predicted state patience for that stressor, consistent with an ego-depletion model of patience. Additionally, patience predicted mental (resilience, anxiety, satisfaction with life, depression, positive affect, and negative affect), physical, relational (communicative competence and perceived social support), and spiritual (spiritual attitudes and involvement) health outcomes. Study 3 replicated the support for an ego-depletion model of patience, and those in the patience intervention workbook improved in trait and state patience, anxiety, and depression, extending and partially supporting the outcomes found in Study 2. The present studies support the use of a workbook intervention to promote patience and additional virtue and mental health outcomes. Implications of these results and future research directions are discussed

Efficacy of a Workbook to Promote Forgiveness: A Randomized Controlled Trial with University Students

Objective The present study investigated the efficacy of a 6-hour self-directed workbook adapted from the REACH Forgiveness intervention. Method Undergraduates (N = 41) were randomly assigned to either an immediate treatment or waitlist control condition. Participants were assessed across 3 time periods using a variety of forgiveness outcome measures. Results The 6-hour workbook intervention increased forgiveness, as indicated by positive changes in participants’ forgiveness ratings that differed by condition. In addition, benchmarking analysis showed that the self-directed workbook intervention is at least as efficacious as the delivery of the REACH Forgiveness model via group therapy. Conclusion A self-directed workbook intervention adapted from the REACH Forgiveness intervention provides an adjunct to traditional psychotherapy that could assist the mental health community to manage the burden of unforgiveness among victims of interpersonal harm

Efficacy of REACH Forgiveness across Cultures

Across cultures, most people agree that forgiveness is a virtue. However, culture may influence how willing one should be to forgive and how one might express forgiveness. At a university in the United States, we recruited both foreign-extraction students and domestic students (N = 102) to participate in a six-hour REACH Forgiveness intervention. We investigated the efficacy of the intervention overall as well as whether foreign-extraction and domestic students responded differently to treatment. Forgiveness was assessed using two measures—decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness. The six-hour REACH Forgiveness intervention improved participants’ ratings of emotional forgiveness, but not decisional forgiveness, regardless of their culture. Thus, the REACH Forgiveness intervention appears equally efficacious for participants from different cultural backgrounds when conducted in the United States with college students

Forgiveness of In-group Offenders in Christian Congregations

Religious communities, like other communities, are ripe for interpersonal offenses. We examined the degree to which group identification predicted forgiveness of an in-group offender. We examined the effects of a victim’s perception of his or her religious group identification as a state-specific personal variable on forgiveness by integrating Social Identity Theory into a model of Relational Spirituality (Davis, Hook, & Worthington, 2008) to help explain victim’s responses to transgressions within a religious context. Data were collected from members of Christian congregations from the mid-west region of the United States (Study 1, N = 63), and college students belonging to Christian congregations (Study 2, N = 376). Regression analyses demonstrated that even after statistically controlling for many religious and transgression-related variables, group identification with a congregation still predicted variance in revenge and benevolence toward an in-group offender after a transgression. Additionally, mediation analyses suggest group identification as one mechanism through which trait forgivingness relates to forgiveness of specific offenses. We discuss the importance of group identity in forgiving other in-group members in a religious community

The Quiet Virtue Speaks: An Intervention to Promote Humility

Empirical interest in virtues and their benefits has increased in recent years. In the present study, we test the efficacy of a workbook intervention to promote humility. Participants (N = 59) were randomly assigned to a humility condition (n = 26; 7.5-hour workbook) or a control condition (n = 33; non-action). Participants in the humility condition reported greater increases in humility across time than did participants in the control condition, who did not change in humility over time. Participants in the humility condition also increased in forgivingness and patience and decreased in general negativity more than did participants in the control condition. Our findings demonstrate the efficacy of the intervention with both religious and non-religious individuals, consistent with both a Christian and secular classical valuing of humility