Abstract: Existing research on forgiveness and forgiveness intervention was based on western culture, and few had included samples in collectivist settings. Under collectivist settings, the way people react to the offense; their forgiveness strategy and the personality factors are different compared with those under individualist settings. Apart from that, models for cross-cultural forgiveness have described forgiveness in collectivist cultures from various aspects. The model of decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness distinguishes the manifestation of forgiveness in individual and collectivism cultures; the model based on self and personality addresses the personality factors under distinct backgrounds; the dynamic process model investigates the cultural factors in forgiveness. The review is useful for the application of forgiveness intervention in collectivist culture.

Key words: collectivism, forgiveness, forgiveness model in collectivist culture, psychotherapy