Positive Psychology Week 2

Strengths

• Focusing on weakness rarely develops strengths

• Focussing on working on innate strengths as a pathway it quicke learning and higher skills

Value in Action (VIA)

• trait like

• relatively stable features of people valued in their own right

• Commonly found in positive psychology literature - more evidence based

• Wisdom, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence, courage

• honesty, perseverance, and courage hep wellbeing

VIA Character Strengths Inclusion Criteria

• Widely recognised across cultures

• Fulfilling

• Morally valued

• Does not Dominis others

• Trait-like

• Measurable

• Distinct

• Paragons

• Prodigies

• Can selectively be absent

• Has enabling institutions

Character Strengths

• Positive parts of personality

• impact the way you think, feel and behave

• 24 character strengths

• Every person posses all 24 strengths at different degrees

• Each person has a unique character strengths profile

VIA Signature Strengths

• top 3-5 strengths

• strongest/most dominant strengths in profile

• likely to be strengths that matter most to you

• 3E: essential, effortless and energising

Character Strengths: Six Virtues

• Wisdom - creativity, curiosity, judgement, love of learning, perspectives

• courage - bravery, perseverance, honesty, xest

• Humanity - love, kindness, social intelligence

• Justice - teamwork, fairness, leadership

• Temperance - forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation

• Transcendence - appreciation of beauty ad excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Strengths With Highest Correlation to Life Satisfaction

• hope

• zest

• gratitude

• curiosity

• love

Lowest Correlation to Life Satisfaction

• modesty/humility

• creativity

• appreciation of beauty

• judgement

• love of learning

Gallup/Clifton Strengths Finder

• Natural talents in combination with knowledge and skills

• Assessment findings published in self-published books rather than peer reviewed journal

• 5 decades of research behind it

• all talents had certain similarities

• 34 categories of strengths of certain talents

• 34 themes talent

Strengths Profile

• Capacity of thinking, feeling and behaving that allows for optimal functioning in the pursuit of desirable outcomes

• Used more as applied tool for recruitment rather than research

• four different profiles

• Realised strengths quadrant: use wisely advice

• Unrealised strengths quadrant: use more advice

• weaknesses: use less advice

• Learned behaviours: use when needed

Profiles

Expert profile: Similar to the previous, however you get the full 60 strengths as well

Team profile: similar as the four quadrants, and them shows frequencies across the team

Manager profile: simple version of strengths profile

Common Grounding

• Personality traits with genetic component

• Associated with predictable performance across different domains

• Combination of acquired knowledge and disposition to act using good judgement in pursuit of human excellence

• Unique individual differences regarding strengths

Fixed Mindset

Believe we are born with certain abilities and stick with them

• see failures as negative

Growth Mindset

Believe we can change if we set our minds to it

• see failure as a way to grow and develop

• prefrontal cortex helps us develop growth mindset

Strengths Intervention

Identify strengths

Using strengths in a novel way

Using strengths in a service of a goal

Four Domains Of Leadership Strengths

• Exceuting: know how to make things happen

• Influencing: know how to take change, speak up and make sure team is heard

• Relationship Building: Ability to form strong relationships that can hold a team together

• Strategic Thinking: Helps teams consider what could be, absorb and analyse information to make better decision

Lesser Strengths

• Working on lesser strengths was more beneficial for participants who were here high in virtuousness

• Working on signature strengths was more beneficial for participants who were low in righteousness