The present study investigated the effects of forgiveness enhancement program on anger,
spiritual well-being, and ego integrity of elderly people residing in facilities. Twenty-eight
elderly people living in a senior care center who participated in the study were randomly
assigned to experimental and control group. The forgiveness enhancement program
consisted of 8 sessions, each of which was administered to the experimental group for 70
mins per week. The main results of the study were as follows. Firstly, the program used
in this study was proven to be effective in enhancing the forgiveness of the elderly people.
Following completion of the program the forgiveness level increased only for the elderly
people in the experimental group. Secondly, following the program elderly people in the
experimental group showed decreased level of anger expression and increased level of
anger control, whereas the control group showed no such changes. Thirdly, the scores of
both spiritual well-being and ego integrity increased for those in the experimental group
whereas no changes were found in the scores of control group. These results provide
preliminary data to develop forgiveness enhancement program for elderly people, especially
those living in poor conditions such as nursing homes, the program which would help
healing past wounds and looking back one's life positively, therefore supporting the elderly
people to lead a happy and satisfactory life for the remaining years.