Abstract: Submission #21

Abstract
This article seeks to examine the cross-cultural differences between conceptions of forgiveness. In social work, the concept of forgiveness is advanced to examine social work practitioners and educators to see if there is any potential need or perceived benefit for forgiveness education, or a perceived need of forgiveness applications in social work practice. However, in philosophical literature the debate pertaining to forgiveness is around its nature with divergent perspectives on whether it is conditional, a moral obligation and what its implications are for justice and human relationships. The main objective is to determine whether South African IsiXhosa, and South African Anglophone speakers employ different concepts of forgiveness. This involves examining critical elements of each group's comprehension of forgiveness, such as conditionality, bilaterality, and moral duty. Furthermore, the study examines the role of cognitive and cultural factors to ascertain if the variation in the concept of forgiveness is rooted in cognitive differences that are influenced by culture and describe cross-cultural misunderstandings in reconciliation by examining how the conceptual distinctions could lead to miscommunication throughout the post-apartheid racial reconciliation process in South Africa. The study takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating ideas from moral philosophy, cognitive science, and cross-cultural psychology and social work. The demographic purposive sample will comprise of South African Anglophone urban whites, Xhosa undergraduate students, and a selected rural Xhosa population of different ages, gender and with different concepts of forgiveness. Tasks were administered in English to Anglophone South Africans of European descent, in Xhosa-to-Xhosa undergraduate students and to Xhosa-speaking rural population. The objective of the study is to provide information that might be useful in resolving possible misunderstandings in multicultural and multiethnic discussions about healing and forgiveness. Also, creating culturally sensitive models of forgiveness by recognizing that these variations provide a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of forgiveness that considers cross-cultural differences between concepts of forgiveness.