Exploring the similarities and differences in the forgiveness of the Indian older adults living in old-age homes and families: a thematic analysis

ABSTRACT

The study examined perceived transgressions and concomitant forgiveness among Indian older adults living in old-age homes and families. The thematic analysis method was employed to analyze interviews with 22 older adults. Severe loss, serious neglect, and cheating were the perceived transgressions of the older adults from old-age homes whereas day-to-day issues characterized the perceived transgressions of the families’ older adults. Pseudo-forgiveness was observed in the older adults residing in old-age homes because of their feelings of helplessness and their fear of losing respect, while affiliation, perceived harm, the realisation of offence, and perceived consequences of punishment were precursors to forgiveness in family-living older adults. Both groups acknowledged the role of offence, intention, relationships, attributions, and commitment to socio-cultural and moral values in forgiveness.

KEYWORDS:

• Forgiveness
• Indian older adults
• old-age home
• thematic analysis
• transgressions

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the cooperation and support extended by Dr. Yogendra Verma, Miss Ruchi Pandey and Miss Priyanka Parihar, research scholars in the Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Dr Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India, for their input in the planning and conducting of the study as well as active contribution in analysing the data and preparing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study may be made available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. An earlier version of the manuscript is available as a preprint with the following link: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.159665991.15556284

Descriptions of the authors’ roles

Charu Prabhakar, Love Kumar Mishra, Poonam Sharma and Akash Bajpai collected and analyzed the data and contributed in preparing the first draft. Gyanesh Kumar Tiwari, Rakesh Pandey, Meenakshi Shukla and Pramod Kumar Rai conceptualized, designed and supervised the data collection, analysis and writing of initial draft and prepared the final manuscript draft.

Ethical approval

The Ethics Committee, Dr Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar 470,003, Madhya Pradesh, India has approved this project.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.