Forgiveness has been defined in many ways by psychologists and researchers without a universal definition. Hill (as cited in Maltby, Day and Mackaskill 2001) state that it is widely recognized that forgiveness involves a willingness to abandon resentment, negative judgment and indifferent behavior towards the person who has hurt them. Although the research is recent, from the last 15 years, it has helped develop our understanding of forgiveness. Research has shown that forgiveness provides positive mental health and prevents the development of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress. Two main models of forgiveness are Enright's model and Worthington's (2001) pyramid model for ACHIEVING forgiveness. Both of these models involve steps and processes we go through to achieve forgiveness. Individual differences are also taken into account, such as personality traits such as the Big 5 and narcissism, which help to understand why some individuals forgive and others do not and why some individuals consequently have poorer mental health because they are unable to forgive. This essay will therefore argue that process and structural models have aided our understanding of forgiveness in terms of individual differences and mental health as they have shown the steps we need to take to achieve forgiveness and research has also shown that those who do not forgive have health worse mental. Furthermore, individual differences have been shown to influence people's ability to forgive or not, taking personality traits into account. One process model of forgiveness is the Enright model. Originally this involved seventeen stages incorporating cognitive, affective and behavioral elements (Enright and the human development group 1991) ...... half of the article ......bes-bolyai, thrologia catholica Latina, LI, 1Maltby, J. , Day, L., Mackaskill, A. (2007) Personality, individual differences and intelligence. Harlow, Pearson prentice HallMcCullough, ME, Pargament, KI, Thoreson, CE (2000) Forgiveness; Theoretical and Practical Research (eds) New York, The Guilford press McCullough, ME, Sandage SJ and Worthington, ELJr. (1997) Forgiving is Human: How to Put Your Past in the Past. Downers Grove, IL, Intervarsity press.Walker, D.F., Gorsuch (2002). Forgiveness within the Big 5 Personality Model. Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 1127-1137Worthington, EL Jr. (2001) Five Steps to Forgiveness: The Art and Science of Forgiveness, New York, CrownYounger,JW, Piferi, RL,. Jobe, RL, Lawler,KA (2000) Dimensions of forgiveness. Journal of social and personal relationships 21: 837