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Strength Approaches - Theory and Practice
This Wiki page has three parts.
In Part One we outline Park, Seligman & Peterson’s (2004) Theory of 24 Character Strengths. We then discuss the concepts and measures they have introduced, and provide examples of how this theory has been applied in diversity of settings. Finally, we provide critical assessment and analysis of the theory, as well as discussing its limitations and shortcomings.
Part Two describes few different Strength-Approaches, which have been inspired by Seligman & Peterson’s work, but which expand the original theory and the way we think about strengths.
Part Three consists of critical appraisal of the entire strengths literature and research as a whole.
Carolyn Foster, a speaker in Google Tech Talk, shared the knowledge on strength approach in different ideas, thories and systems. Researches from positive psychology, brain science, and resilience research were introduced. To know more Strength appraoch, pleaseto watch! |
PART ONE - Theory of Character Strengths
(1) Background - Why are Strengths important?
Much of traditional and contemporary psychology is concerned with people’s weaknesses, or “negative psychology” such as depression, anxiety etc. Positive psychology focuses on optimal human functioning. Rather than emphasising the negative, positive psychology promotes the study and understanding of people at their best. It posits that the good life can be achieved by identifying our strengths and fostering them, rather than repairing weaknesses.
(2) History and origins of the Theory
(2.1.) Conneciton with Other Areas of Psychology:
Given their focus on improving human functioning and well-being and developing the best in individuals, Positive Psychology is strongly related to Humanistic Psychology and Coaching Psychology. In Humanistic Psychology prompted person-centre approach. For example, Maslow argued that human experiences are mixture of the needs of fulfillment and needs for themselves. To develop a positive attitudes, the meaningful of experiences in external reality is important. People can find their ways (strength) to obtain cooperative social fulfillment or meaning connecting to external world,which can lead to self-actualization.
(2.2) Connection with Religions, and different cultural and philosophical traditions:
Theory of 24 Character Strengths has, amongst others, arised through Seligman and his colleagues' research of writings of major religious and philosophical traditions ranging from Aristotle, Plato to those of the Buddha and Lao Tse and also Benjamin Franklin. They discovered the ubiquity of six virtues: wisdom and knowledge, courage, love and humanity, justice, temperance, spirituality and transcendence; which have been approved by different religious and cultural traditions.
"The Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues represents the most ambitious project
self-consciously undertaken from the perspective of positive psychology." (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2004, p.411)
Virtue: | Strengths: | Virtue: | Strengths: |
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Wisdom and Knowledge |
| Justice |
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Courage |
| Temperance |
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Humanity |
| Transcendence |
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Criteria for 24 Character Strengths: The 24 Character Strengths selected have been claimed to fulfil 10 criteria set forward by Seligman & Peterson (2004):
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Potential Criteria for Top Strengths |
1. A sense of ownership and authenticity (“this is the real me”) vis-à-vis the strength. |
(4) Measurements of Strengths:
There are several measures of Character Strengths (For a detailed explanation of Virtues, Strengths & VIA Assessment Strategies look at this short document)
- VIA-IS - Values in Action Inventory of Strengths is survey developed by Peterson and Seligman (2004). It is said to be a positive counter-part for DSM in that it is a psychological assessment tool which classifies positive character strengths in individuals. There are several different versions of the VIA: The adult questionnaire is composed of 240 items with a 5 point Likert scale response. The VIA-IS is being translated into many different languages.
- VIA Youth - VIA-IS adopted for youth 10-17 years of age.
- VIA-RTO - 9-item VIA-Rising-to-the-Occasion Inventory - short (10min)measure of adult Character Strengths that are arguably phasic - rise and fall depending on the situation(e.g. bravery), as opposed to tonic (e.g. kindness). Analyses strength use in strength-relevant settings, also using a 5-point Likert-style scale.
- VIA-SI - VIA Structured Interview - individual interview format for adults adopted from the VIA-RTO, 25-minute-long, analyses phasic and tonic Strengths. Follow-up questions about a strength that seems to be common ask for: (i) “name” the strength; (ii) is it really who you are?; and (iii) would others agree with this?
- Content analysis - Character Strengths can be also determined using content analysis of open-ended written or spoken material – method developed by Nansook Park.
Validity and reliability of the measures:
There is some disagreement amongst researchers as to the internal validity of the above measures. VIA Institute claims it is satisfactory or even high for some Strengths (all have α above 0.70;) but other studies not - e.g. in a study of councillors in Canada, Russell found that 5 of the strengths had low internal validity (α below .70): Capacity to Love and Be loved (α = .61); Citizenship (α = .67); Honesty (α = .68); Gratitude (α = .68) and Love of learning (α = .69) (see this VIA Institute website).
(5) Excercises to develop one's Strengths:
Exercise #1: Using Signature Strengths in a New Way.
(2) Choose on which of the Top 5 Strengths you will concentrate.
(3) Use these one top strengths in a new way each day, for a week.
Exercise #2: Paragons
Exercise #3 The “Defining Moments” Exercise
(1) Think of or tell a story about a defining moment in your life (e.g. winning a comptetition).
(2) List the Character Strengths involved in this story
(3) Reflect on how your character strength of bravery/courage was used in order to employ the other strengths
(4) Reflect on how this story has shaped your identity and impaced the present day?
(6) EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF SELIGMAN & PETERSON'S THEORY AND APPROACH TO STRENGHTS:
(A) Support for the concepts and theory of Character Strengths:
There is much support for a notion that appropriate choice of self-concordant goal leads to well-being. Strength approach may be effective, because use of one's Strengths is supporting pursuit of such self-concordant goals (that are personally valued). This in turn is increasing chances that one will attain the set goal, which is also associated with greater well-being and satisfaction. Additionally, Strength use may play an important role in 'affective learning loop', where fulfilment due to initial goal attainment is motivating individuals to sustain efforts and to further goal progress) (Linley et al, 2010).
(B) Further Support for Character Strength Theory from Applied Settings:
Below are examples of how Seligman & Peterson's theory (24 strengths measured using VIA) has been successfully applied in different settings:
a) Clinical & Health Applications of the 24 Strenght Approach
Positive Psychology in gerenal, as well as Seligman & Peteron's Theory of Ch.Strengths have been sometimes criticised for being over-focused on positive aspects of human life, thus potentially ignoring clinical populations (see more <here>). Nevertheless, this approach has found some supporters among clinical psychologists as well, whom incorporated it into their practice. For example, counsellors believe that use of their Strengths makes them more ethical practitioners and more likely to experience flow during their therapeutic sessions (Russell, on VIA Institute website).
A rather curious example from a psychotherapist using VIA (more examples here) |
She would use VIA as a diagnostic and planning tool with 80% of her clients, and set it as homework after each of the first three sessions. She felt that VIA gives her and the client 'hope and direction', and helps depressed people name their strengths, which they otherwise cannot do. The therapist would then generate ideas for how to use client's Top Strengths (eg. use Kindness to interpret client's emotional reactions'). In case of a depressed, unemployed men with Curiosity and Creativity as Top Strengths, she encouraged him to search for more creative jobs than before, and she helped him develop questions he could ask to his father (since he was curious!). BUT! She also discovered that he was *shy* (weaknesses), and set him exercises to address it and there is no mention of the client succeeding at finding the job. Therapist'a (revealing) statement: 'Without the VIA, I would never have identified him as a curious person. He seemed quite antisocial. But he did overcome his weakness, i.e. generated the conversation with the receptionist, I had been evesdropping from the top of the stairs.' |
Among those with physical disorder, Life Satisfaction is associated with Bravery, Kindness and Humor. Hope was a significant predictor of medication adherence among asthma patients between 8 and 12 (Berg, Rapoff, Snyder, & Belmont, 2007).
b) Educational & Developmental
- General Wellbeing: Building on Strengths is the 2nd most cited goal of youth development (Roth & Brooks-Gunn, 2003). There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that strength development can have implications in positive youth development. The VIA Youth allows us to identify strengths in young people. In a study by Park (2004), strengths of Hope, Love, Zest, Self Regulation, Social Intelligence and Wisdom were shown to be positively associated with Life Satisfaction. For this reason, youth programmes have worked to try and increase these strengths via intervention schemes.
- Management of behavioural problems: Alcohol and substance misuse/dependence is becoming an increasing problem amongst adolescence and it has been indicated that certain strengths, especially Prudence, Self Regulation and Perspective can work to prevent these problems. Additionally, they can buffer against stress, trauma, violence and depression (Benson et al., 1998; Seligman, 2002; Peterson & Park, 2004). For example, increasing optimism in young people decreases symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as reducing anti social behaviour (MacLeod? & Moore, 2000). Many schools nowadays encourage community and voluntary work and some even have it a necessary part of the curriculum. This builds strengths of Love, Kindness and Citizenship. Studies have shown that this has a very positive effect on adolescents by reducing teenage pregnancy, delinquency, failure and dropout rates (Allen et al., 1997; Larson, 2000).
- Improvement of Educational Outcomes: Additionally, informing students about their strengths (and especially key strengths) and encouraging their use in everyday life has lead to significant increase in self-reflection, direction and self-confidence (Park, Peterson & Seligman, 2004), and to higher academic self-efficacy, life satisfaction, GPA and fewer absences. Development of Love, Kindness and Citizenship also improves achievement and attitudes to education (in Peterson, 2009)
- Parenting is also implicated in this strengths approach. It has been documented that Self Regulation in parents has an even stronger effect on the happiness of their children rather than their own.
- Strength Gym: Proctor & Eades promote Personal, Social and Health Education with 24 strength approach, in order to build school children's confidence, self-esteem, and motivation on learning. More information here.
c) Organizational and coaching
It is needless to say that certain strengths can be of great value in the workplace, and this approach is being vigorously promoted and applied in organizational settings (which has lead to some equally strong critique). For example, Strengths of Leadership would complement management roles and more broadly, Teamwork/Citizenship would be desirable across a wide range of occupations which involve working with others. With regards to the VIA, Findings by Peterson and Park have highlighted that Love, Kindness and Social Intelligence (the humanity strengths) are more specifically associated with work satisfaction in occupations which involve working with people (e.g. teachers, medical practitioners) Work satisfaction is also associated with strengths of Gratitude, Hope, Zest, Curiosity. (Park, Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Some of the methods of identifying and working on strengths include team building exercises, employing strengths coaches, special workshops/retreats, fairness and incentives. There are several ways in which we can reap the rewards of our strengths within our organization.
Ruch et al (2004) compared Strengths (measured by VIA-IS) of Employees (n=84) and Executives (n=184).
Results: (1) Executives score significantly higher on: Bravery, Leadership & Open-Mindedness, Employees on: Appreciation of Beauty & Kindness. (2) High Executives score higher on Love of Learning vs. Middle/Low Executives. Middle Executives score higher on Perspective than Low Executives. (3) Level of managerial position is positively correlated with: Love of Learning, Open-Mindedness, Curiosity & Bravery; and negatively correlated with: Modesty, Spirituality and Appreciation of Beauty. *Striking Finding* (4) Authors correlated Strength Scores with Work and Life Satisfaction. Many Strengths of Executives tended to positively correlate with both of these measures. However, Strengths of Employees tended to correlate only with Life and not Work Satisfaction! Conclusion: There are some key differences in sets of Character Strengths of Executives (of different levels) and Employers. More importantly, Employees may not use their strengths in a way that improves their Work Satisfaction
(7) Character Strength Theory - Limitations and Gaps btw Theory and Evidence:
- As the 24 character strengths were derived from religious and philosophical texts, and not from empirical evidence or scientific discourse, it could be argued that opinion has shaped research here rather than research shaping opinion.
- The mechanisms by which Strengths bring about positive outcomes are still unknown and poorly researched (Linley et al, 2010).
- Differential Impact of Strengths (and not just Top Strengths): Most of the 24 srengths DO NOT have significant association with all postive outcomes and studies yield contradictory results. According to one study, only these 6 are associated with well-being.: Zest, Hope, Love, Love of learning, Judgment, and Perseverance. In contarst, acording to another study, strengths with weakest association with life satisfaction are: Modesty, Creativity, Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence, Judgment/open-mindedness, and Love of learning (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004). Moreover, different studies conclude that different set of Strengths correlate with different life and work aspects (see above). First of all, how come Love of Learning is strongly associated with well-being but not life-satisfaction? Secondly, is Creativity a weakness, if it weakly associated with life satisfaction? Thirdly, which Strengths should one develop? Should we still encourage people to develop and use their Top Strengths, if neither of them is shown to relate to satisfaction or happiness? Or maybe the to-be-developed strengths be chosen not based on VIA Classification, but based on people's priorities and goals (eg. wish to become an Executive or to develop buffer for depression)?
- Contradictory Nature of Strengths: There seems to be a problem with definition and the criteria for what defines a “strength”, as some concepts are arguably contradictory: eg. Strengths are trait-like, possibly even hereditary and stable over time BUT can easily and drastically change due to life events. Moreover, if our Top Strengths are stable and even hereditary, why then, would we invest so much time and effort studying how to build or work on the Top or new Strengths?
- Additionally, some empirical studies show that development of some Strengths can lead to ‘degradation’ of other Strengths. Such tradeoffs were observed between Heart Strengths (gratitude and love) and Head Strengths (perseverance and self-regulation) or between Individually-focused Strengths (curiosity and creativity) and Other-focused Strengths (teamwork and fairness) (Peteron & Park, 2006). Therefore, should we still encourage people to develop some Strengths knowing about potential consequences?
Criteria for Strengths and measurements:
- Not all Strengths fulfil all of the 10 criteria for strengths proposed by Seligman and Peterson (see above), most fulfill only 8 or 9 (VIA Institute Website)
- One of the 10 criterias states that Strengths are distinct from each other. However, analysis show that some Strengths are highly inter-related (Wood et al, 2010)
- Numerous factor analysis of the 24 strengths have been conducted, and each of them has found a different number of factors or sub-categories into which these 24 Strengths should be organized. None of them supports the original 6 factor (virtue) division proposed by Seligman & Peterson (2004) (Macdonald et al, 2007; and see VIA Institute Website for more summaries).
- External Validy of measures - little work has been done so far to test what VIA-IS is really maesuring. It is claimed to mesure possession of particular strengths, but one could argue that it is measuring only how often one thinks or beliefs she is using particular strength. Additionally, no attempts are made to disucss (using qualitative interviews, for example), the extent to which individuals agree with the results of their VIA surveys.
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‘…we intend these (24) strengths as neither exclusive nor exhaustive" Peterson and Seligman (2004, p.13)
"Hence, the door is very much open for further revisions to this classification" (Linley & Harrington, 2006, p.87)
..............................PART TWO - Alternative Strength-Approaches.................................
(1) Introduction to Other Strength-Approaches:
Linley & Harrington (2006) emphasised, that there is a demarcation between the academic and applied approaches to Strengths:
(1) Academic: classifications of strengths was derived from reviews of existing literatures and the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria (e.g. the 6 criteria above). Advantages: systematic, ordered, integrative theory. Limitations: too restrictive.
(2) Applied: diverse classifications of strengths based on interviews with different groups (professionals, students etc). Advantages: clear applied value within a particular field. Limitations: lack of an integrative conceptual framework.
(2) Examples of Different Approaches of Strengths:
Example of a more Practical Approach:
Example of a more Inclusive Approach:
In this part we will therefore introduce other Strength-approaches, which have been inspired by work of Seligman & Peterson, and thus all share a common belief that people posses Srengths that should be indentified, developed and used. However, different approaches developed nevertheless very different definitions, measurements and strength concepts, depending on the field they work in, and populations they affect. Below table provides an outline of some of the different Strength systems (adopted from B.C Community Consultation Paper, 2010):
Field of work | Strengths Identified in Past Research | Source |
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Educational |
| Hanson & Kin (2007) |
Educational |
| Feinberg et al. 2007, Kelly & Caputo, 2005 |
N/A |
| Proctor, Linley, & Maltby, 2009 |
N/A |
| Carjaval. 1998 |
Developmental |
| Thomas, Holzer, & Wall, 2004 |
Applicable to all domains |
| Seligman & Peterson (2004) www.viastrengths.org |
Developmental |
| The Search Institute www.search-institute.org |
(3) Examples of Applications of other Strength-Approaches:
Below are examples of other Strenght-Approaches that have originated within different settings and for different purposes:
a) Clinical & Health
b) Educational & Developmental
- System of 3 Strength Groups for youth gang prevention: (British Columbia (B.C) Community Consultation Paper, 2010). By examining “Social Strength”, “Personal Strength” and “Strengths of belief”, a plan for preventing and helping the youth to get back on track may be developed. Youths may be encouraged to participate in volunteer work, joining sport, interest or religious groups build up “social strength”. “Strengths of belief” is important in the good will of others, which protect against involvement in violence. The Search Institute Model (website) is a model, which consists of 40 “Developmental Assets”, that facilitate positive youth development, thus is helpful for strength-based interventions. In addition, higher scores on the Search Institute Measures are significantly correlated with various positive outcomes for youth, and thus reducing levels of violence.
- Theory of 8 Character Strengths - an impressive framework for improvement of Excellence and Ethics in Schools, by Davidson et al. (2005). They came up with the following set of 8 Character Strengths: (1) critical thinker (2) diligent and capable performer (3) socially and emotionally skilled person (4) ethical thinker (5) respectful and responsible moral agent (6) self-disciplined person (7) democratic citizen (8) spiritual person engaged in crafting a life of noble purpose. In contrast to Seligman & Peterson's (2004), they believe that all of these strengths should be developed simultaneously within school environment. Method used to discover Strengths: they studied 24 different, award-winning schools trying to identify key characteristics of students. Their findings, as well as multitude of pomising practices to foster these strengths were described in a 227-page report (it is long, but have a look to see how complex and developed this framework is).
- Luthans (2002) describes four key strengths that contribute greatly to your personal wellbeing in what is called Psychological Capital (Psy Cap). These strengths (hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience) contribute greatly to what is called the human capital (what you know), the social capital (who you know) and the actual and future self. The concept of Psy Cap is relatively new, but preliminary evidence for the validity of an intervention within this paradigm has been set (Luthans et al., 2006). It has been shown that, after teaching employees of a company how to improve their Psy Cap, productivity in the company rises, thereby increasing profits.
- Super (1980) suggested that awareness of personal values on interests and abilities can help people discover their strength. Matching the interests and abilities with characteristic job are more likely to increase job satisfaction and productivity (Holland, 1997). Hence, people can use their unique strengths to enhance well-being life (Roberitscheck and Woodson, 2002).
- The Gallup Organization implemented the web based “Strengthsfinder” (website) to help individuals discover their particular talents or strengths across a wide range of occupations (teachers, managers, salespeople etc). Unlike the VIA, this study identifies 34 talents which are areas for greatest potential of strength building. There are 3 steps in strength based development: identification of strengths, integration into self reflection and behavioural change (Clifton & Harter 2003). Follow-up surveys have reported consistent changes in behaviour. The application of the strengths based approach is linked to employee engagement which positively influences profit, turnover, safety and customer satisfaction (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes, 2002). On a Gallup follow-up study investigated participant behaviours following strength based development, 59% of participants strongly agreed that identifying their strengths had led them to better decision making. In addition, 60% agreed they had become more productive in their work and 63% agreed that learning about their strengths had made them more confident. Among warehouse workers, strength based intervention led to a 6% increase in per person productivity (Connelly, 2002).
- In Gallup's book, "Go put your strengths to work", it is suggested that people should identify their own strength separate from the inventory. And how to use those to manage around their weakness. Put your strength to overcome the weakness. - Carolyn Foster (2008)
Strength-approach within social work has as a goal “to discover and embellish, explore and exploit clients' strengths and resources in the service of assisting them to achieve their goals, realize their dreams, and shed the irons of their own inhibitions and misgivings, and society's domination" (Saleebey, 2010, p.1). However, a different set of strengths has been identified within this approach, with the key being: (1) what people learned about themselves and about the worlds, (2) cultural and personal stories and love, (3) pride of other people, (4) open expression of feelings, (5) capacity to be independent and gain self-control, (6) to think abstractly. For more examples click here.
e) Sports and Physical Performance
(1) Lack of self-criticism within the field
(2) Alternative explanations for success of Strenght-approach:
Some authors have proposed that much of the benefitcial effect of Strength Approach could be explained by:
a) Placebo effect - mere concentration on positive aspects of individuals' lives and not their strengths per se, results in positive outcomes - if people themselves and their environment are concentrating on strengths (positive things) only, and ignore weaknesses - no wonder people are happier and perform better!
b) Hawthorne's effect - mere participation in a study, specifically - being given more attention and time by the experimenters or interviewers explains better performance and well-being (Eden, 1986)
c) Pygmalion effect - self-fulliling prophecy - expectancies or belief about intervention outcomes, and not the intervention itself can bring about the change. That is, belief that concentration on one's strengths will lead to happier life and better perfomance may result in people acting in a way to confirm these beliefs. Such Pygmalion effect has been observed when subordinates perform better when expected to do so by their superiors - findings from both education and management (in Hodges & Clifton, in Press).
d) "Writing Cures" - Strength approaches rely on introspection and often involve writing or contemplating one's activities. Visit this years Wiki on Writing Cures to learn more.
(3) Limitations of Strength-only focus:
a) Limitations of Strength-only focus:
- Focusing on only positive or good things (i.e. strengths) in young people can have opposite effect to the intended, because: a) it prevents fuller understanding of emotional issues in youth, and b) could lead to some developmental problems due to “excessively high levels of positive emotions” and even mania (Daleiden et al, 1966; Vasey, and Williams, 1996; Eisenberg et al., 1996).
- Additionally, research within States of Mind model has shown that psychological well-being is not determined by presence of positive and absence of negative emotions, cognitions, experiences etc, but by a balance between them.
- “let us not overlook the troubled among us” (Peterson, 2006 p. 46). Emergence and increasing popularity of Positvie Psychology (and coaching psychology) with it’s focus on strengths has lead to some criticism: researchers fear that overemphasis on positive aspects of life will distract clinicians from working with populations that are suffering from psychological disorders.
Therefore, to be most beneficial, strength-based assessments and approaches should examine both positive and negative emotions, cognitions and characteristics, and thus be combined with more traditional deficit-based approach (eg. How I Feel scale, Walden, Harris, & Catron, 2003) .
b) Advantages of addressing weaknesses:
Studies show that there is no significant difference in terms of satisfaction and happiness between people who concentrate, develop and use their two strengths, or one strength and one relataive weakness. For example, in a recent study Rust et al (2009) asked 76 participants to complete VIA-IS and then divided them randomly into two groups: (A) The two-Strength group was asked to choose two strengths from their Top 5 Ch.Strengths (VIA-IS) and focus on them for the next 12 weeks (each week they had to write about how they used these Ch.Strengths and how they plan on using them next week). The second group (B) 1-strength and 1 weakness group had to the same, but they concentrated on 1 Top Strengths and 1 of their worst Strengths. There was no significant difference between the two groups in study outcomes (e.g. Life Satisfaction scale). Larsen & Griffin (1985) go even futher, as they argue that “philosophically there may be some wisdom to addressing both strengths and weaknesses even though empirically there appears to be no advantage, as least in terms of life satisfaction”.
Additionally, people want to know about their strengths: According to a global Gallup Poll, people from different countries believe that they will improve more if they concentrate on their weaknesses, rather than strenghts. This belief is strongest among Chinese and Japanese samples (76%), moderate among French (71%), British and Canadian samples (62%) and weakest in the USA ( 59%) (in Hodges & Clifton, In press). Similarly, other individuals tested using VIA, such as students, tend to insist on knowing their weaknesses as well.
(4) Other issues:
a) Cultural & gender differences
b) Methodological problems:
Experimental reserach on strength suffers from many methodological limitations:
a) Over-reliance on self-reports - they are useful for understanding the thought processes and complex cognitions, but may not be objective.
b) Little or no use of behavioural measurements to test if particular strengths are really being used, and therefore we cannot be sure if our manipulation is really affecting our finidngs, or wether something else is at play (Wood et al, 2010).
c) Poor control of confounds: little control over experimental bias, demand characteristics, Hawthorne (mere-participation) effect.
d) Over-reliance on corellational studies - Difficult to determine causality or whether use of strengths outside of experimental conditions will lead to similar effects (better performance, increased happiness) (Wood, 2010)
f) Poor outcome measures - the measurement used to distinguish whether or not the Strengths approach has worked are also subjective and personal reports - there is no agreed definition of what would be considered an improvement in someone who has used a Strengths approach in a given field.
5) Examples of Wild Uncritical Claims:
Crucially, there is no evidence that development of one's Top Strengths would have significantly better result than developing any otherStrength. Quite the contrary, Rust et al (2009) showed that focusing on the 'weaknesses' (i.e. Strengths with lowest score on VIA-IS) could have equally benefitial impact. Furthermore, while some Strengths are corelated with positive outcomes and states (in health, clinical and work settings), there are no experimental studies that developing them would lead to them, especially in the long run.
6) Synthesis of Findings:
Seligman et al (2005). Positive Psych Progress - Empirical Validation of Interventions
This article summarizes recent findings in the field of positive psychology that are relevant to strength interventions. A study is described that compares a strength intervention with other exercises from the Positive Psychology framework in reducing symptoms of depression. Patients in all treatment conditions had significant improvements from base-line at a one-month follow up, but the immediate effects of other Positive Psychology treatment conditions proved more powerful.
Wood et al (2010). Using personal and psychological strengths leads to increases in well-being over time: A longitudinal study and the development of the strengths use questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences. 50(1), 15-19
Steen, T.A., Kachorek, L.V., & Peterson, Ch.. (2003). Character Strengths Among Youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 32(1) 5-16.
This study was carried out on 459 high school students in the USA. It was conducted using focus groups discussions about character strengths included in the VIA. It includes a discussion of the implications of the strengths approach. It is very insightful and highlights the importance of peer groups as a force of encouraging and sustaining character strengths.
Hodges, T.D. & Clifton. D.O. Strengths-Based Development In Practice. In: Linley, P.A., & Joseph, S. (In press). International handbook of positive psychology in practice: From research to application. New Jersey: Wiley and Sons. Available at: http://www.strengthsquest.com/content/File/144026/Strengths-Based_Development_in_Practice?.pdf
A good overview of successful interventions and experiments on Strength-approaches (not 24 Strengths).
1) Media for Strength
5) References - Papers really worth looking at marked with " * "
Allport, G.W., 1937. Personality: A psychological interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
*Biswas-Diener, R. (2006). From the Equator to the North Pole: A Study of Character Strengths. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 3, 293-310.
*Bhatt, G., Tweed, R., & Dooley, S. (2010). Strength-based Approaches to Youth Gang Prevention in B.C. Community Consultation Paper. Victim Services and Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General (pp. 1-31). National Crime Prevention Centre, Public Safety Canada.
Chung, R.J., Burke, P.J., Goodman, E., (2010). Firm foundations: strength-based approaches to adolescent chronic disease. Current opinion in pediatrics, 22, 4, 389-397.
Clifton, D.O., & Anderson, E. (2002). StrengthsQuest?: Discover and develop your strengths in academics, career, and beyond. Washington DC: The Gallup Organization
Clifton, D.O., & Harter, J.K. (2003). Investing in Strengths. Available online at: http://media.gallup.com/DOCUMENTS/whitePaper--InvestingInStrengths?.pdf
Connelly, J. (2002) All Together Now. The Gallup Management Journal, 2(1), 13-18
Daleiden, E. L., Vasey, M. W., & Williams, L. L. (1996). Assessing children’s state of mind: A multitrait, multimethod study. Psychological Assessment, 8, 125-134.
Early & GlenMaye? (2000). Valuing Families: Socia Work Practice with Families from a Strengths Perspective. Social Work, vol 45. 118-130
Eden (1986) "OD and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Boosting Productivity by Raising Expectations" Available at: http://jab.sagepub.com/content/22/1/1.full.pdf+html
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Guthrie, I. K., Murphy, B., Maszk, P., Holgren, R., & Suh, K. (1996). The relations of regulation and emotionality to problem behavior in elementary school children. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 141-162
Govindji & linley (2007) Strengths use, self-concordance and well-being: Implications for Strengths Coaching and Coaching Psychologists, 143 / 31
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