Gayle and Robert (2006) explain the different studies on the effect of forgiveness therapy. The article discuses about 35% of women are facing emotional abuse from a spouse or romantic partner. “Women often demonstrate negative psychological outcomes long after this abuse. ” (O’Leary, 1999).
Follingstad, Rutledge, Berg, Hause, and Polek (1990) and Sackett and Sanders (1999) have stated some of the categories that took effect after one’s been abuse psychological thru critizing, ridiculing, jealous control, purposeful ignoring, threats of abandonment, threats of harm and damage to personal property which causes and have strong negative impact of emotional abuse than physical abuse.
Enright and Reed has underlined the consequences of those psychological problems which are depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, low self-esteem, learned helplessness, and an ongoing debilitating resentment of the abuser. The treatment uses to heal those women is ‘Forgiveness Therapy’which uses as a problem solving respond to severe wrong doing. FT also found out these psychological emotional abuse can affect those women decision making. There are two unique challenges for recovery that Sackett & Saunders, 1999 have found.
First “Learned Helpness” which defines that those women turn out to blame themselves for the abuse relationship. And “Accusatory Suffering” (Seagult & Seagult 1991) entails maintaining resentment and victim stauts. “ the assumption in accusatory suffering is that healing the wounds of the abuse will somehow let the penetrator off the hook. ” FT also focusing on decreasing and helping the resentful feeling toward the abusing partner and assist them to recover and develop good will.
The study used 20 participant abused women who has been abused and has been divorced or permantly separate with their partner for a more or at least 2 years. Among those participants are different races, ethnicity that has some or college degrees with no or full time career jobs. Participants have been tested by using the screening checklist by using the Psychological abuse survey, the Enright forgiveness inventory, Coopersmith self-esteem inventory, State-Trait Inventory, Beck Depression inventory, Environmental Mastery Scale Reed instrument, the PTSS checklists, and Story measure.
