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Based on the earlier studies. the cognitive change variables that facilitate forgiveness could be divided into 5 factors: f1(ascent in social status), f2(solace by social comparison), f3(change in offender), f4(death or deterioration in health), and f5(striving for healing) in this study. The primary aim of this study was to confirm the 5-factor structure in forgiving process, and the secondary aim was to compare the relative levels in importance among the 5 cognitive change factors as a function of age. Participants were 419 men and 433 women who aged from 30 to 84 years. They were asked to assess how much each cognitive change factor affected their decisive acts of forgiving on 5-point scale [0 (not at all) to 4 (very much)] if they had to forgive someone. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a reasonable fit index for the 5-factor structure of the forgiveness-related questionnaire. Among the five factors, both f2 and f3 were found to be important, irrespective of the participants’ age, in their decisive acts of forgiving. The older the participants were, the more important the f1, f4 and f5 were come out in their decisive acts.
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