Rrofessor analyzes grudges
SMU educator believes forgiveness can benefit mental, physical health
04/24/2002
By LEIF STRICKLAND / The Dallas Morning News
At the start of each semester, Michael E. McCullough treks across Southern Methodist University, posting his fliers between car-insurance ads and rental notices.
"Have you experienced a traumatic event in a relationship in the last seven days?" the fliers read. "Then call this number."
Dr. McCullough is best known around SMU for his popular class, "Psychology of Religion." Among colleagues, though, he's known for his research on the art and science of forgiveness.
Since his days as a graduate student in Virginia, the 32-year-old associate professor has spent hundreds of hours studying whether forgiveness can improve a person's health. His hypothesis: Holding grudges can damage a person's health – and, by contrast, forgiving can contribute to mental and physical well-being.
"There are clearly things that go on in people's heads that mitigate the effects of the ugliness of life on their health and well-being," Dr. McCullough said. "What we're asking is, 'Could forgiveness possibly be one of those things that helps buffer people from stresses and strains of life?' "
Students in despair
In his current study, he is using heartbroken SMU students who respond to the fliers. They come to his lab every other week for 10 weeks to talk about their recent traumatic event – usually a breakup or a fight – as he measures their pulse, skin conductance and hormone levels. He uses that data to determine the health effects of letting go or of holding a grudge.
Forgiveness research is painfully relevant in today's world climate, he said. It's also full of potential.
"If we can really get an understanding of the connection between forgiveness and health, in individuals and relationships and communities, then we can then move on to determining how we can use applied psychology to take advantage of those insights," Dr. McCullough said. "We help people get further along the road to being more forgiving, in the service of keeping them happier and healthier and keeping our communities running better."
In other words, he's seeking to validate scientifically the cross-cultural tradition, found everywhere from the Bible to Deepak Chopra's best-sellers, of forgiving and forgetting.
Dr. McCullough took an interest in forgiveness almost a decade ago, when he was a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. He was inspired by a case study that two of his professors – including Dr. Everett Worthington, the dean of the psychology department – had done on the topic.
"Mike came back and said, 'This is what I want to do research in,' and he basically dragged me kicking and screaming into it," Dr. Worthington said.
Dr. Worthington, Dr. McCullough and a dozen or so other scholars nationwide forged ahead in forgiveness research over the next few years, publishing studies with such titles as "Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships: II. Theoretical Elaboration and Measurement."
The research initially was isolated to small academic circles, Dr. McCullough said, and "then it started to snowball around 1999." That was the year that the John Templeton Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds scientific inquiries into spirituality, helped start the Campaign for Forgiveness Research.
The campaign, of which Dr. Worthington is executive director, now funds 27 projects worldwide, including Dr. McCullough's. Others include "Forgiveness and Reconciliation in South Africa," "Corporate Culture, Downsizing and Forgiving" and "How Chimpanzees Process & Overcome Socially Negative Events." (Early results suggest that apes are not, in general, forgiving.)
In addition, several mass-market books on forgiveness have been published recently, putting the issue "onto the breakfast table," Dr. McCullough says.
Now, Dr. McCullough and his colleagues are working to expand the scholarly literature on the "slippery" subject.
Personal application
He said his personal experience with trauma and forgiveness is not as deep as some of his subjects, but that doesn't make him any less fascinated.
"I'm probably one of the people who, if you looked at my life, you'd say it's been a pretty rosy life," he said. "My parents love me, my wife loves me. Not much stress or strain. I was lucky enough to go to college, graduate school. I'm probably one of the least equipped to talk about the utility of forgiveness in dealing with the ugliness of life, because my life has been such a primrose path.
"But it is something that I strive to bring to my everyday relationships ... and, in a wider context, I believe it has enormous potential."
Heaven knows its hard to do, and I think I'm personally way too sarcastic for any forgiveness any time soon, but what about you all? Hvae you tried approaching JW relatives or old friends and forgiving them? What was the result, as in did it do you any good, or just agitate your feelings further?
Sincerely,
District Overbeer