Sorry & Psychology

Feeling Sadness, Sympathy, or Disappointment, especially because something unpleasant has happened or been done. Sorry is just not a Word, It deals with lot of Emotions.

Just think of a moment, When did you say Sorry lately? Once you sneezed? Done a mistake?? Hurting someone???

We will ask sorry and sometimes we may not ask sorry, depending on our situations, importance of the people involved or just to keep the relationship alive. This is serious because “Sorry”, is the word that affects our dignity, Self Image and Self Esteem.

We might have heard or experienced personally on how much it takes for the person to ask sorry in serious relationships and situations. Mostly people have the difficulty of asking “sorry”, when it would damage their self image or if they think, asking “Sorry”, is not going to change anything between them, according to Schumann, Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Failing to Apologize when the mistake made, is to safe guard one’s self image or enjoy thinking one’s behavior as moral. Admitting the mistake one has done can make them feel restless and develop bad feelings. To escape from those feelings individuals tend to make justifications or excuses, blame the victim, downplay the harm they’d caused, or deny any wrongdoing.

In fact asking sorry do reduce feelings of shame and guilt after the fact, according to a study, individuals who apologized reported more Positive feelings. Individuals are likely to ask sorry when they find other person personality being flexible, accepting responsibility, in these situations apology can be a opportunity for growth.

I Agree! There are psychological hurdles to make apologize. From now, if you are in the position of asking sorry, do it sincerely by taking other person into the account. Firstly, Acknowledge personal responsibility, secondly, give an explanation for why the violation occurred, and lastly provide an offer of repair, which may restore the tangible damage.

It is also important to express your regret for what has happened, give assurance that it won’t be repeated again and ask for forgiveness while apologizing to make it effective(Lewicki).

These are the effective ways of asking Sorry for settling down the interpersonal problems and few intrapersonal quires but for each individual who are being hurt from different circumstances need unique perspective to heal. Because Saying Sorry will not work in social rejections as sorry would do in other situation. Healing from hurt are affected by dignity of the person involved, vulnerability of self esteem and more sensitive factors.

References:

Schumann, K. (2018).  Current Directions in Psychological Science.