A Collaborative Scholarship Model for Liberal Arts Colleges: Applications for the Psychology of Forgiveness

Asani Seawell (Assistant Professor of Psychology, Grinnell College) and Loren Toussaint (Associate Professor of Psychology, Luther College)

Forgiveness has long been a topic of study and discourse in religion and philosophy, but only recently has the scientific study of forgiveness become of interest to psychological scientists. Professors Seawell and Toussaint will be conducting two research studies related to forgiveness and health that will employ a collaborative model. The first study will examine the effects of writing about forgiveness on the physical and psychological health of undergraduate students. The second study will focus on the impact of meditation on forgiveness and health. The most important outcome of this project will be the development of a collaborative research model that will be useful for ACM faculty and students. The model incentivizes research, provides a steady source of accountability, fully involves students in all stages of the process, and will result in broad dissemination of both the collaborative research model and research results.