Does hurt linger? Exploring the nature of hurt feelings over time

The utility of distinguishing between introjective hurt (feeling sad, engaging in selfblame, and wondering what one did wrong) and retaliatory hurt (yelling at, blaming, confronting, and feeling angry toward the offender) was explored in a longitudinal design of two months. Participants (N=51) were asked to describe a recent hurtful incident in survey format and complete subsequent measures of various behavioral and emotional reactions, including hurt and forgiveness. Results suggested the stability and relative independence of the two types of hurt and the differential significance of predictor variables (for example, apology) for each hurt type, both simultaneously and over time. These results support the distinction between retaliatory and introjective hurt as they represent distinct reactions with differential interpersonal outcomes.