Discussion
The findings of the study have evinced the abiding role of some demographic factors (gender and age), self-forgiveness and self-esteem in shaping the nature and extent of the human flourishing of the participants. Except for gender that was negatively correlated with human flourishing, age, self-forgiveness and self-esteem were positively correlated with human flourishing. The hierarchical regression analyses evinced that that gender, age, self-forgiveness and self-esteem contributed significantly to the scores of human flourishing. The findings showed that gender (.266) and self-forgiveness (.247) emerged as the most significant predictors of human flourishing followed by self-esteem (.185) and age (.178) as depicted by beta (β) values in Model 3 (see Table 3). More importantly, mediation analysis evinced that self-esteem played a significant mediating role (partial mediation) the relationship between self-forgiveness and human flourishing.
The negative correlations among gender and other measures showed that females showed lower attainments on these measures as compared to their male counterparts. Gender differences in the acquisition of self-forgiveness, self-esteem and human flourishing of the participants may be due to the fact that the Indian society still carries large and perceptible gender disparities in the availability of various resources and opportunities (Ram et al., 2014). Similar findings regarding gender differences on these measures have also reported that suggested dissimilar availabilities of the socio-cultural and socialization patterns along with positive resources to cause such differences (Pandey et al., 2019, 2020).
A positive correlation between self-forgiveness and human flourishing was observed. It may be posited that realizing one’s role in transgressions and involving oneself in repairing the damage caused by such transgressions may result in decreasing negative emotions and increasing positive emotions. Higher self-forgiveness may also culminate in improved interpersonal and social relationships, positive attributions and satisfaction that may be directly assumed to shape human flourishing. The significant mediation of self-esteem between the relationship of self-forgiveness and human flourishing was observed. It might have caused by the fact that positive self-evaluations and personal values, the major ingredients of self-esteem, facilitated the achievement of flourishing by the individuals who were more self-forgiving.
In other words, self-esteem carries self-satisfaction, self-attitude, self-worth, self-efficacy, self-respect, social comparison, self-pride, self-perception, relative strengths and feeling of being virtuous. Self-esteem has been reported to have close links with happiness, positive emotions, self-evaluation, positive mood regulation, optimistic thinking and optimal functioning that buffer the effects of stress caused by pain, failure and adversities of life. It has also been observed that self-esteem benefits individuals in two ways: enhanced initiative and pleasant feelings (Baumeister et al., 2003). Similarly, some other researchers have argued that higher self-esteem may increase the accessibility of psychological resources like self-compassion necessary for individuals to invest in forging self (Pandey et al., 2019; Strelan & Zdaniuk, 2015). Positive and higher self-esteem may also facilitate self-forgiveness and finally flourishing by helping the person to assess his/her role in causing pain to others and necessary steps to be undertaken to repair the damage caused by it (Fincham et al., 2005). Small sample, a limited number of psychological constructs, selection of only adult student sample and use of the only quantitative method for the data collection were the major limitations of the study.
Summary and Conclusions
The results showed a close and significant interdependence among self-esteem, self-forgiveness and human flourishing as evident in their positive correlations. Moreover, self-esteem and self-forgiveness accounted for significant variability in human flourishing (regression analysis). These results are pre-requisite condition to further carry out mediation analysis that showed self-esteem to emerge as a significant partial mediator between the relationships between self-forgiveness and human flourishing measures. Self-esteem represents self-worth and personal values that are essential ingredients to prepare a person to forgive himself/herself that, in turn, may cultivate positive affects and cognitions leading one to achieve flourishing. Moreover, self-esteem helps to understand transgressing situations and the exact role of the various stakeholders. These positive attributions may have facilitated self-forgiveness and finally flourishing of the participants.
Implications and Directions for Future Researchers
There is ample opportunity for future researchers to further extend their contributions to the field of self-forgiveness, self-esteem and human flourishing. Understanding the developmental trends in self-forgiveness and self-esteem in the context of human flourishing may be a new and worthy addition to this field. More qualitative studies may be carried out to explore further dimensions of self-forgiveness, self-esteem and human flourishing in the existing theories of their similarities and dissimilarities in light of individualistic and collectivistic cultural values. The cross-cultural investigations of these constructs may strengthen the understanding of the relationship of these positive constructs. The study of self-forgiveness and self-esteem can be made even more useful by incorporating other positive psychological constructs.
Statement of Funding
The authors have no funding to report.
Declaration of Conflicting Interest
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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