Filipino Forgiveness Case Study

Forgiveness and the Filipinos
In a paper of Rungduin and Rungduin (2013), wherein six forgiveness studies were reviewed, it presented forgiveness in Filipino context. The theory of Kapwa of the founder of Filipino psychology, Virgilio Enriquez was also explored. It pointed out that forgiveness (pagpapatawad) reflects Filipino’s “kagandahang loob,” which is part of his elaborative study of the Filipino Value Structure (“Filipinos and forgiveness,” 2015; Pe-Pua & Protacio-Marcelino, 2000). In the six forgiveness studies reviewed, it is noted that Filipino values emerge as catalyst in the act of forgiveness. The study has pointed out two important factors that facilitate forgiveness, (1) motivation to forgive and (2) the manner how forgiveness unfolds. These two factors are affected by Filipino’s cultural values like pakikipag-kapwa, utang na loob and

In turn, forgiveness also improves the possibility of a successful outcome of integrity-despair developmental task of old age, which is according to Eriksons’ psychosocial theory. The study involved Belgian community-dwelling older adults and institutionalized elderly. Results of the study have shown that forgiveness and depression has negative correlation. On the other hand, forgiveness is vital in achieving ego-integrity especially in older adults who were in the late stage of life, wherein it is important to come into terms in their past and in their relationships.
Dezutter et al.’s (2014) study had other notable findings that there is no difference in the level of depressive symptoms of community-dwelling and institutionalized elderly. Then, the elderly that experienced achievement of integrity has higher level of forgiveness and lower symptoms of depression. Hence, to resolve the late life crisis of integrity vs. despair, forgivingness seems to have a vital