With the rise of positive psychology, research in forgiveness is getting more and more attention. In order to emphasize the positive role of forgiveness as an important positive psychology concept in facing and dealing social conflict, forgiveness was defined as a broader and integrated concept in this paper, which was based on the definitions of interpersonal forgiveness, self－forgiveness and forgiveness－seeking. This paper clarified some major misunderstanding of forgiveness, summarized the research progress and proposed the corresponding research prospects in the area.