Nathaniel Wade has always been interested in humanism, but as an undergraduate he didn’t know that he’d be dedicating much of his professional career to researching forgiveness.

Wade, assistant professor in psychology, said he first became interested in the study of forgiveness in graduate school because it was his graduate adviser’s focus. This led him to take several courses in the psychology of religion and spirituality.

He said he sees forgiveness as meaningful because it helps people. Overall, that’s his main goal — to help people get over their grudges and hurt, he said.

“How do you take these psychological ideas and research and really apply it?” he asked.

Wade said there is already some material on the subject of forgiveness, but it generally compares people who received some therapy with those who had none. He said some therapy is always preferred, and the two methods commonly used — the Freudian theory, which uses talking as a form of therapy, and the cognitive behavioral theory, which encourages behavioral changes as therapy — are about equally effective.

The key, he said, is how well the therapist builds a relationship with the patient.

Wade, however, wants to try something different.

He said he wants to compare therapy specifically targeted at forgiveness with the psychotherapy treatments already in use. Wade said he wants to see if it really matters what therapy is used.

“Maybe typical psychotherapy is enough,” he said.

His top priority right now is an upcoming interpersonal workshop. The goal is to find people in the Ames community who have experienced hurt or who still hold a grudge, split them into two different therapy groups and see if one type of therapy produces more positive results for the participants.

The first group will be much more interactive in more of a psycho-educational weekend workshop, with manuals, discussion and sharing. The other group will be similar to traditional group therapy with a larger degree of sharing and discussing, but with less education.

At the end of the study, Wade will compare the two groups to see if there were different outcomes.

He said forgiveness is often misunderstood — something he said needs to be addressed. Forgiving doesn’t necessarily mean that a person should jump back into a relationship with the person who hurt them. Rather, it is a way of letting go of some of the anger and boundaries that the person has put up, he said.

“Forgiveness is really separate from reconciling,” Wade said. “Forgiveness and reconciling often go together, but they don’t have to.”

Another problem is the fact that therapists are often hesitant to bring up forgiveness because they don’t want clients to feel that they “must” or “should,” he said.

Wade said forgiveness is often also associated with religion, particularly Christianity, in the United States, which makes therapists hesitate to bring the matter up.

Wade teaches several graduate courses, along with an undergraduate course in the psychology of religion.

Craig Anderson, professor and chairman of the psychology department, said although he has not personally sat in on any of Wade’s classes, he has heard a lot of positive feedback from students. Anderson said he was excited to have Wade — who started teaching at Iowa State in the fall of 2003 — on board.

“He is an excellent, young assistant professor,” Anderson said. “He is going to be a very important player in our department for a long time to come.”