THE CONNECTION OF READINESS FOR SELF-FORGIVENESS WITH FEELINGS OF GUILT, SHAME AND RESENTMENT

The article presents the results of a theoretical and empirical study of the specifics of the relationship between feelings of guilt and shame with resentment and willingness to forgive oneself.Forgiveness has been shown to be characterized by a prosocial change in motivation, in which a person becomes less motivated to seek revenge against a partner in interpersonal interactions, less motivated to maintain alienation from the offender, and more motivated to reconcile and benevolently treat the offender, despite his or her abusive actions.Self-forgiveness has been shown to be an emotionally focused coping strategy that involves reducing negative and increasing positive thoughts, emotions, motivations, and behaviors about oneself.It has been shown that in shame the focus of appraisal is on the self, whereas in guilt the focus of appraisal is on behavior.The results of an empirical study are presented, in which 938 people participated, including the following target groups: male and female civilians, wives of active combatants, and internally displaced women.The following research methods were applied: the author's research questionnaire "Diagnostics of attitudes towards forgiveness, life and military-political events"; the questionnaire "Scale of deep readiness to forgive"; the methodology "Measuring feelings of guilt and shame".It was found that internally displaced women, civilian women, civilian men, and wives of active combatants had clearly expressed significant negative correlations between feelings of guilt and willingness to forgive themselves.It was determined that among civilian women, civilian men, wives of active combatants, and internally displaced women, clearly expressed significant positive correlations between resentment and feelings of guilt and shame were found.It was found that civilian women, civilian men, wives of active combatants, and internally displaced women showed clearly expressed significant negative correlations between shame and willingness to forgive themselves.It was found that in all four groups, the negative, clearly expressed, significant correlations of shame with willingness to forgive are less pronounced compared to the negative correlations of feelings of guilt with willingness to forgive themselves.