Abstract: It has commonly agreed that forgiveness is a prosocial change in the motivations. We introduced three forgiveness models here; this is Stress–and–Coping Model of Worthington, Interpersonal Forgiveness Model of Koutsos and Self–Forgiveness Model of Hall and Fincham. These three models support the prosocial change theory from three different aspects. Through these three models, we also made a thorough analysis of the recent research of forgiveness cognitive progress, interpersonal variables with forgiveness and self-forgiveness. In the end, We reviewed the history of forgiveness research and pointed out the existing problems in the studies both in China and in the West.

Key words: prosocial change in the motivations, dispositional forgiveness, situational forgiveness