Interpersonal Apologies: A Psychological Perspective of How They Might Work in Law
Keywords:
Apology, empirical, research, law, lawyers, mediation, mediators, civil, criminal justice, Disculpa, investigación empírica, derecho, abogados, mediación, mediadores, justicia penalAbstract
Apologies have become an accepted feature in many fields of law and there is evidence that they make a constructive contribution to the resolution of disputes. The reason for this might be that they address the intangible needs of parties after adverse events that law otherwise find difficult to address. Legal reformers introduced apologies into law primarily on the basis of deductive reasoning without being able to refer to a comprehensive psychological theory that explains the apology process; in part because apology was only identified as a psychological construct worthy of empirical research during the last quarter of the 20th century. Researchers’ contributions since the 1980s greatly improved the knowledge base about the apology process and we reviewed the relevant literature to find a comprehensive integrated theory of apology that legal reformers and practitioners can use to understand and predict the apology process. We could not find such a theory, but we try to integrate the empirical findings regarding interpersonal apologies into a rudimentary explanation that we believe could assist them. We conclude that apologies will generally be a part of the negotiated corrective interaction between the parties and that legislation should accommodate the process without being overly prescriptive and that lawyers should therefore refrain from judging the apologies their clients offer or accept.
Las disculpas se han convertido en una figura aceptada en muchas áreas del derecho, y se ha demostrado que contribuyen de forma constructiva a la resolución de disputas. La razón parece ser que hacen referencia a las necesidades intangibles de las partes después de eventos adversos que el derecho, de otro modo, tiene dificultades para abordar. Algunos reformadores jurídicos incorporaron las disculpas a la legislación principalmente en base al razonamiento deductivo, sin que fueran capaces de alegar una teoría psicológica general que explicase el proceso de disculpa; en parte, porque la disculpa sólo se identificó como constructo psicológico merecedor de una investigación empírica en el último cuarto del siglo XX. Las contribuciones de los investigadores a partir de 1980 mejoraron mucho la base del conocimiento sobre el proceso de disculpa, y nosotros hemos revisado la literatura relevante para tratar de encontrar una teoría general integrada de la disculpa que pueda ser usada por reformadores y practicantes de la ley a fin de entender y predecir el proceso de disculpa. No hemos podido encontrar dicha teoría, pero hemos procurado integrar los descubrimientos empíricos referidos a las disculpas interpersonales en una explicación rudimentaria que, creemos, puede serles de ayuda. Nuestra conclusión es que las disculpas, generalmente, serán parte de una interacción negociada correctiva entre las partes, y que la legislación debería incluir el proceso sin ser excesivamente prescriptiva y que, por consiguiente, los abogados deberían abstenerse de juzgar las disculpas que sus clientes ofrecen o aceptan.
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