Forgivingness and action orientation

The present study investigated the relationship between forgivingness and action orientation, and examined the mediating role of action orientation for the neuroticism–forgivingness association. Participants (N = 210) completed the Tendency to Forgive Scale (TTF; Brown, 2003), two subscales from the Action Control Scale (ACS-90; Kuhl, 1994b) and the Neuroticism scale from the short form of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-K; Rammstedt & John, 2005). Results indicate that failure-related action orientation (AOF) was strongly positively related to forgivingness. Moreover, the negative relation between neuroticism and forgivingness was fully mediated by action orientation (AOF). This finding suggests that the ability to down-regulate negative affect is an important mechanism in explaining the association between neuroticism and forgivingness.