Take the Forgiveness Test to See How Forgiving You Are
We sometimes wonder just how forgiving we are toward people who hurt us.
If this is the case for you, below is the 18-item Personal Forgiveness Scale for you to take and score privately.
This scale is based on the well-validated Enright Forgiveness Inventory, used in the United States, South America, the Middle East, and Asia.
Your score will give you a sense of whether or not you need to do some forgiveness work toward the person who hurt you, if you choose to forgive.
Have you ever wondered how forgiving you are? If so, you are invited to take the Personal Forgiveness Scale below, which is published in the book, The Forgiving Life (Enright, 2012). This forgiveness scale is based on the highly reliable and valid Enright Forgiveness Inventory, validated across cultures in the United States, Middle East, South America, and Asia (see, for example, Enright et al., 2021). The scale below has 18 short items.
Here is the scale:
Personal Forgiveness Scale
We are sometimes unfairly hurt by people, whether in family, friendship, school, work, or other situations. We ask you now to think of someone who has hurt you unfairly and deeply----someone who has wounded your heart. For a few moments, visualize in your mind the events of that interaction. Try to see the person and try to experience what happened.
Now, please answer a series of questions about your current attitude toward this person. We do not want your rating of past attitudes, but your ratings of attitudes right now.
Please rate each item on a 1 to 6 scale as follows:
1 = Strongly Disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Slightly Disagree
4 = Slightly Agree
5 = Agree
6 = Strongly Agree
This first set of items deals with your current feelings or emotions right now toward the person . Try to assess your actual feeling for the person on each item. For each item please check the appropriate box matching your level of agreement that best describes your current feeling.
I feel _________________ toward him/her. (Place each word in the blank when answering each item.)
I feel…
1 warm
2 negative
3 kindness
4 dislike
5 happy
6 angry
This set of items deals with your current behavior toward the person . Consider how you do act or would act toward the person in answering the questions. For each item, please check the appropriate box matching your level of agreement that best describes your current behavior or probable behavior.
Regarding this person, I do or would _______________. (Place each word or phrase in the blank when answering each item.)
I do or would do…
7 show friendship
8 avoid
9 aid him/her when in trouble
10 ignore
11 do a favor
12 not speak to him/her
This set of items deals with how you currently think about the person . Think about the kinds of thoughts that occupy your mind right now regarding this particular person. For each item please check the appropriate box matching your level of agreement that best describes your current thinking.
I think he or she is _______________. (Place each word or phrase in the blank when answering each item).
I think he or she is…
13 of good quality
14 corrupt
15 a good person
Regarding this person, I _______
16 disapprove of him/her
17 wish him/her well
18 condemn the person
Scoring
Now add up your scores as you recorded them for the following items: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17
Important: Now reverse score the following items . In other words, if you gave a rating of 1, score this as a 6; if you rated an item as a 2, give this a 5; if you rated an item has a 3, give this a 4; if you rated an item as a 4, give it a 3; if you rated an item as a 5, give it a 2; and if you rated an item as a 6, then give it a 1.
Add up your scores now on all 18 items.
Interpretation of Your Total Score
If you scored between 18 and 40, you are low in forgiving this person at this point in time. This does not mean that you will not raise your score. If you so choose, you might consider engaging in the forgiveness process to rid yourself of resentment and possibly to improve your relationship (if you have had one with the person).
If you scored between 41 and 63, you are still somewhat low in forgiving, but obviously are getting closer to a psychological state that is not as angry and therefore perhaps not as vulnerable. The midpoint of the scale is 63 and so anything below this shows that you can improve your forgiveness response if you are motivated to enter the forgiveness process. The books, Forgiveness Is a Choice (Enright, 2019) and 8 Keys to Forgiveness (Enright, 2015) may help. Both have been used in research and are part of empirically-verified treatments (see, for example, Yu et al., 2021).
If you scored between 64 and 86, you are showing forgiveness, at least to a degree. You may have a minimally wounded heart, in need of some forgiveness, but not imperative if you wish to be emotionally free from the effects of others’ injustices toward you.
If you scored between 87 and 108, then you are already forgiving or well on your way to even more forgiving toward that person. You probably do not need to go through the forgiveness process with this person.
For the Future
If you are interested in other measures of forgiveness, we now have on the International Forgiveness Institute website 4 different forgiveness inventories free of charge for you if you wish to examine them for yourself or to use them in research. These include the Enright Forgiveness Inventory short form, similar to the scale here, but with 30 items rather than 18 (Enright et al., 2021); the Enright Self-Forgiveness Inventory (Kim, Volk & Enright, 2020) in which you can assess the degree to which you forgive yourself for transgressions; the Enright Group Forgiveness Inventory (Enright et al., 2020) which assesses groups forgiving other groups; and the Enright Forgiveness Inventory for Children (ages 6 through 14). I wish you the best in your forgiveness journey.