Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory

Authors: Michael E. McCullough, K. Chris Rachal, Steven J. Sandage, Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Susan Wade Brown, & Terry L. Hight

WHAT THE QUESTIONNAIRE MEASURES

The TRIM is a self-report instrument that assesses the motivations assumed to underlie forgiving: Avoidance and Revenge. Responses to 12 statements referring to a transgression recipient's current thoughts and feelings about the transgressor are scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Recently, a six-item subscale to reflect benevolent motivations toward the transgressor has been under development (contact the first author for details). The TRIM subscales not only correlate with a variety of relationship, offense, and social-cognitive variables, they have also demonstrated strong relationships to a single-item measure of forgiveness. The inventory takes approximately 5 minutes to complete.

KEY REFERENCES
  1. McCullough, M. E., Rachal, K.C., Sandage, S. J., Worthington, E. L., Brown, Susan W., & Hight, T. L.(1998). Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships: II. Theoretical Elaboration and Measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1586-1603.
  2. McCullough, M. E., Hoyt, W. T., & Rachal, K. C. (2000). What We Know (and Need to Know) about Assessing Forgiveness Constructs. In McCullough, M. E., Pargament, K.I., & Carl E. Thoresen (Eds.), Forgiveness: Theory, Research, and Practice (pp.65-88). New York: Guilford Publications,Inc.
  3. McCullough, M. E., Bellah, C.G., Kilpatrick, S. D., & Johnson, J. L. (2001). Vengefulness: Relationships With Forgiveness, Rumination, Well-Being, and the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 601-610.
E-MAIL CONTACT INFORMATION

Michael E. McCullough, Ph.D.: mikem@mail.smu.edu