Character Strengths Profile: Understanding Your Unique Abilities
Character strengths are the positive qualities that come naturally to you, that energize you, and that you use to pursue goals and navigate challenges. Understanding your character strengths profile can transform how you approach your personal and professional life, helping you build on your natural talents while developing areas where you have less natural affinity.
The Science of Character Strengths
Character strengths are based on decades of research in positive psychology. Researchers Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson led a 40-person team over three years to study great philosophical and religious traditions across history to develop a comprehensive classification system for character strengths.
The result was the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues, which identifies 24 character strengths organized under six core virtues. These strengths are universally valued across cultures and are measurable elements of personality that contribute to overall well-being.
The Six Virtues and Their Associated Strengths
1. Wisdom and Knowledge
Cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge:
- Creativity: Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things
- Curiosity: Taking an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake
- Judgment: Thinking things through and examining them from all sides
- Love of Learning: Mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge
- Perspective: Being able to provide wise counsel to others
2. Courage
Emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition:
- Bravery: Not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain
- Perseverance: Finishing what one starts; persisting in a course of action in spite of obstacles
- Honesty: Speaking the truth and presenting oneself in a genuine way
- Zest: Approaching life with excitement and energy
3. Humanity
Interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others:
- Love: Valuing close relations with others
- Kindness: Doing favors and good deeds for others
- Social Intelligence: Being aware of the motives and feelings of other people and oneself
4. Justice
Civic strengths that underlie healthy community life:
- Fairness: Treating all people the same according to notions of fairness and justice
- Leadership: Encouraging a group of which one is a member to get things done
- Teamwork: Working well as a member of a group or team
5. Temperance
Strengths that protect against excess:
- Forgiveness: Forgiving those who have done wrong
- Humility: Letting one's accomplishments speak for themselves
- Prudence: Being careful about one's choices; not saying or doing things that might later be regretted
- Self-Regulation: Regulating what one feels and does
6. Transcendence
Strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning:
- Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence: Noticing and appreciating beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance
- Gratitude: Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen
- Hope: Expecting the best in the future and working to achieve it
- Humor: Liking to laugh and tease; bringing smiles to other people
- Spirituality: Having coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe
Benefits of Understanding Your Character Strengths Profile
Research has demonstrated numerous advantages of knowing and using your character strengths:
- Enhanced Well-being: People who use their strengths more report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction
- Greater Performance: Using your signature strengths leads to increased productivity and better performance at work and school
- Improved Resilience: Awareness of your character strengths helps you cope with adversity and bounce back from challenges
- Better Relationships: Understanding your strengths and those of others improves communication and collaboration
- Purpose and Meaning: Strengths use provides a sense of authenticity and connection to a larger purpose
- Reduced Stress: Engaging activities that utilize your strengths can reduce stress levels
Developing Your Character Strengths Profile
Step 1: Take the Assessment
The VIA Character Strengths Survey is a free, scientifically validated tool that measures your 24 character strengths. Take approximately 15 minutes to complete the survey, which asks you to rate various statements about yourself.
Step 2: Identify Your Signature Strengths
Your "signature strengths" are typically your top 5-7 strengthsthe ones that are most essential to who you are. These are the strengths that energize you, come naturally, and that you eagerly seek opportunities to use.
Step 3: Apply Your Strengths Daily
Intentionally use your signature strengths in new ways each day. Research shows this simple practice leads to increased happiness and decreased depression for months afterward.
Step 4: Develop Lower Strengths
While building on your signature strengths, also consider strategically developing your lower-ranked strengths when they would be particularly beneficial or for personal growth.
Character Strengths in Action
Case Study: Sarah's Journey
Sarah, a software engineer, felt unfulfilled despite her successful career. After completing a character strengths assessment, she discovered her top strengths: curiosity, love of learning, and creativity.
Sarah's experience illustrates how aligning activities with your character strengths can revitalize even well-established aspects of your life. By consciously creating opportunities to use her signature strengths, she enhanced her engagement and satisfaction without changing careers.
Strengthening Your Weakest Areas
While it's beneficial to leverage your signature strengths, character development also requires addressing areas where you have less natural talent. Research suggests several effective approaches:
- Strength Pairing: Pair a weaker strength with a signature strength to develop it. For example, if you want to improve prudence (lower strength) and have humor as a signature strength, you might apply humor to help you pause and think before making decisions.
- Contextual Application: Use your signature strengths to support growth in other domains. Someone with strong perseverance might apply that determination when developing a weaker social intelligence strength.
- Values-Based Practice: Connect underdeveloped strengths to your core values. Understanding why a strength matters to your overall values can increase motivation to develop it.
- Micro-Goals: Set small, achievable goals that stretch your weaker strength. Success builds confidence and gradually forms neural pathways associated with that strength.
Character Strengths in Different Life Domains
Work and Career
Employees who use their strengths at work are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs and three times more likely to report excellent quality of life. Organizations that focus on strengths development experience higher productivity, lower turnover, and greater customer satisfaction.
Relationships
Couples who recognize and appreciate each other's strengths report higher relationship satisfaction. Character strengths awareness helps partners understand what energizes each other and how they can support one another's growth.
Education
Students who use their character strengths set higher goals, achieve better academic performance, and have greater resilience in the face of academic challenges. Strengths-based education approaches help students identify how they learn and contribute best.
Character Strengths Throughout Life
Your character strengths profile is relatively stable but can evolve throughout your life. Major life events, new roles, and experiences can lead to changes in how strengths are expressed and which strengths become most prominent. Regular reassessment helps track your growth and identify new opportunities for development.
Creating a Strengths-Based Life
Moving from awareness to intentional application of your character strengths can transform various aspects of your life:
- Choose Roles Wisely: Select professional and personal roles that align with your signature strengths when possible
- Redesign Activities: Find ways to modify your current activities to incorporate more of your strengths
- Strengths-Based Goal Setting: Frame your goals around using your strengths in new contexts
- Develop a Strengths Language: Learn to recognize and name strengths in yourself and others
- Create Strengths Rituals: Establish daily practices that intentionally use your top strengths
Common Misconceptions About Character Strengths
- Misconception: You should only focus on your top strengths
- Reality: While signature strengths are powerful, all 24 strengths contribute to well-being, and sometimes a lower-ranked strength is exactly what's needed in a particular situation
- Misconception: Strengths are fixed traits that cannot change
- Reality: While you have natural tendencies, all character strengths can be developed with practice and attention
- Misconception: Character strengths are the same as talents or skills
- Reality: Character strengths are moral qualities, while talents are innate abilities and skills are learned abilities
The Journey of Character Development
Understanding your character strengths profile is not a destination but an ongoing journey. As you grow and evolve, your relationship with these strengths deepens, revealing new dimensions of yourself and new possibilities for how you can contribute to the world around you.
The science of character strengths gives us a language for understanding and appreciating our unique qualities. By embracing this framework, we can cultivate a more authentic, fulfilling life rooted in our deepest strengths. The path to flourishing begins with recognizing the strengths that already reside within you.
Take the first step today by exploring your character strengths profile and discovering the remarkable resources you already possess to create a life of purpose, resilience, and meaning.
