Relationships Among Cognitive Distortions, Forgiveness of Others, and Self-Forgiveness in Psychiatric Outpatients with Depressive Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Depression is associated with cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal difficulties that may influence forgiveness-related processes. This study aimed to examine the relationships among cognitive distortions, forgiveness of others, and self-forgiveness in patients with depression. Methods: This cross-sectional and correlational study was conducted with 252 voluntary psychiatric outpatients diagnosed with selected ICD-10 depressive disorders in a single outpatient clinic, excluding individuals with severe depressive episodes and psychotic features. Data were collected using the Descriptive Data Form, the Rye Forgiveness Scale (RFS), the State Self-Forgiveness Scale (SSFS), and the Cognitive Distortions Scale (CDS). Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation analyses, and linear regression analyses were used for data analysis. Results: A weak positive correlation was found between forgiveness of others and self-forgiveness (r = 0.206, p < 0.001), whereas a moderate negative correlation was identified between forgiveness of others and cognitive distortions (r = −0.486, p < 0.001). No statistically significant relationship was found between cognitive distortions and self-forgiveness (p > 0.05). Regression analysis showed that cognitive distortions significantly predicted forgiveness of others. Female participants had significantly higher self-forgiveness scores than males, and primary school graduates had higher cognitive distortion scores than high school and university graduates. Conclusions: The findings suggest that cognitive distortions may be more strongly associated with forgiveness of others than with self-forgiveness in psychiatric outpatients with depressive disorders. Further longitudinal and intervention-based studies are needed to better clarify these relationships.