Psychodrama oriented group therapy for forgiveness in university students

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to analyze whether psychodrama has any effect on acquiring "forgiveness flexibility". The research has been conducted using the control group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental model. The study group consisted of 20 university students in total, 10 of them were in the experimental group and 10 were in the control group. The program included 16 sessions and Heartland Forgiveness Scale was administered to the experimental and control groups as pre-test and post-test. In addition, process analysis was used in each session to support quantitative data. In the last session, psychodrama process evaluation form was also applied to the participants. For quantitative data, the Friedman test and the Mann-Whitney U test have been used along with the SPSS program, the psychodrama process evaluation form was interpreted via content analysis. A significant difference has been found in "self-forgiveness", "forgiving the situation", and "total forgiveness" sub dimensions whereas no significant difference has been detected in "forgiving others? sub-dimension. The psychodrama process evaluation denoted a rehabilitative effect on the participants? levels of forgiveness, empathy skills, and family relationships. Our research suggested that forgiveness is an important step in building trust and intimacy with others again.