The European Football Championship as a Positive Festivity: Changes in Strengths of Character Before, During, and After the Euro 2008 in Switzerland

Proyer, René T.; Gander, Fabian; Wellenzohn, Sara; Ruch, Willibald

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6869-7_7

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The third study considered the possibility that character strengths might not only be affected by the experience of adverse events, but by positive events experienced collectively. Proyer et al (2014) used a sequential sample design to study group differences in character strengths at several points in time before and after the 2008 European Football Championship in Switzerland (one of the hosting countries). The participants assessed following the championship reported higher scores in honesty, fairness, humility, and spirituality than those assessed before the event.…”

Section: Changes In Character Strengths In Response To Life Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Character Strengths Change Rating Form -Self (CSCRF-S) assesses perceived changes in the 24 character strengths described in the VIA classification as a consequence of the first wave of the COVID crisis with one item per character strength. The CSRF-S was developed based on Ruch et al's (2014) Character Strengths Rating Form. A sample item for the character strength of creativity is "creativity describes the pronounced tendency, for example, to think about new ways of solving problems and to have creative and original ideas without being satisfied with conventional solutions when better possibilities are available."…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Character Growth Following Collective Life Events: A Study on Perceived and Measured Changes in Character Strengths During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gander

Wagner

2021

Eur J Pers

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Did the COVID-19 pandemic promote character growth? Studies using sequential samples suggest that collective life events can result in character growth, but their conclusions have been questioned. This study used three approaches to examine character growth during the first wave of the pandemic: perceived changes in oneself and in a close other, and a longitudinal analysis of changes. In addition, we tested whether character strengths assessed before the pandemic predicted specific instances of growth, that is, engagement in volunteering and compliance with regulations during the pandemic. German-speaking participants ( N = 366, 76.5% female, mean age: 45.33 years) who had completed an assessment of character strengths before the pandemic reported on perceived changes in character strengths, engagement in volunteering, and compliance with regulations. A subsample also completed a second assessment of character strengths. The results showed that (a) participants reported perceived changes for most character strengths in both themselves and close others, while (b) longitudinal increases were only observed for humility and prudence. Pre-pandemic character strengths predicted (c) engagement in volunteering and (d) compliance with regulations. We conclude that actual character growth was smaller than the perceived changes but that the character strengths did predict relevant behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

show abstract

Section: Changes In Character Strengths In Response To Life Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Character Growth Following Collective Life Events: A Study on Perceived and Measured Changes in Character Strengths During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gander

Wagner

2021

Eur J Pers

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The third study considered the possibility that character strengths might not only be affected by the experience of adverse events, but by large-scale positive events. Proyer et al (2014) used a sequential sample design to study group differences in character strengths at several points in time before and after the 2008 European Football Championship in Switzerland (one of the hosting countries). The authors reported higher scores in honesty, fairness, humility, and spirituality following the championship.…”

Section: Changes In Character Strengths In Response To Life Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Character Strengths Change Rating Form -Self (CSCRF-S) assesses perceived changes in the 24 character strengths described in the VIA classification as a consequence of the COVID crisis with one item per character strength. The CSRF-S was developed based on Ruch et al's (2014) Character Strengths Rating Form. One example of the items is that for the character strength of creativity, which states that "creativity describes the pronounced tendency, for example, to think about new ways of solving problems and to have creative and original ideas without being satisfied with conventional solutions when better possibilities are available."…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…explicit expectation that character strengths are malleable, by such factors as deliberate training and learning experiences, for example; changes in these traits can also triggered by important life events. The literature has long suggested that such changes in character strengths (or character growth) may take place following major adverse historical events (Peterson & Seligman, 2003), recovery from illness (Peterson et al, 2006), or traumatic experiences (Peterson et al, 2008;Schueller et al, 2015); they can also take place following positive events (Proyer et al, 2014). These studies have advanced the idea that adverse life events might, despite their apparent undesirable effects, also contribute to growth, and that this growth may be reflected in changes in character strengths.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Character growth following collective life events: A study on perceived and measured changes in character strengths during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Gander¹,

Wagner²

2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Did the COVID-19 pandemic promote character growth? Studies using sequential samples suggested that collective life events can result in character growth, but their conclusions have been questioned. This study examined character growth during the COVID-crisis using three approaches (perceived changes in oneself and a closer other, and longitudinal analyses of changes). Additionally, it investigated the relationships between character strengths assessed before the pandemic, and well-being, compliance with regulations, and voluntary engagement during the pandemic.German-speaking participants (N = 366, 76.5% female, mean age: 45.33 years) completed an assessment of character strengths up to 1.5 years before the COVID-19 pandemic and reported on perceived changes in character strengths, posttraumatic growth, well-being, compliance, and engagement during the COVID-crisis between June and August 2020. Results show that (a) perceived changes were reported for most character strengths in both oneself and close others, but (b) longitudinal increases were only observed in humility and prudence. Pre-crisis character strengths showed relationships with both (c) posttraumatic and (d) well-being during the crisis and predicted (e) compliance with regulations and (f) voluntary engagement.We conclude that actual character growth was smaller than the perceived changes, but that character strengths predicted positive experiences and behaviors related to the COVID-pandemic.

show abstract

Character Strengths’ Change During COVID-19

Naddaf

Lavy

2022

J Happiness Stud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The COVID-19 had negative effects on individuals and nations worldwide. However, based on literature suggesting that crises can trigger growth, we propose that it may have also triggered individuals’ character strengths development, especially among those having experienced moderate levels of difficulty during the pandemic and having received social support. The participants’ ( N = 1700) 24 character strengths were assessed twice: before and during COVID-19. At the second assessment, participants also reported the level of impact COVID-19 had on their lives, and their perceived social support. MANOVA analysis revealed a general increase in character strengths, with significant – but mainly negligible or small - increases in 17 strengths: appreciation of beauty and excellence, bravery, prudence, creativity, curiosity, fairness, gratitude, honesty, hope, judgment, kindness, leadership, perspective, self-regulation, social intelligence, spirituality, and zest. Across the 24 strengths, the reported level of COVID-19’s impact (i.e., low, moderate, or high) was not associated with different changes during the pandemic. Univariate analyses showed that such changes were significant only in curiosity, forgiveness and kindness. The multivariate effect of social support on changes in character strengths was significant. Specifically, it enhanced the increase in love, prudence, curiosity, forgiveness, gratitude, honesty, hope, judgment, leadership, humility and zest during COVID-19, although the interactions effect sizes were small. The results suggest that, in the time frame examined in this study, character development processes triggered by COVID-19 were evident, yet specific changes in strengths were relatively mild. Some of these processes may have been enhanced by social support. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-022-00575-6.

show abstract

The European Football Championship as a Positive Festivity: Changes in Strengths of Character Before, During, and After the Euro 2008 in Switzerland

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Character Growth Following Collective Life Events: A Study on Perceived and Measured Changes in Character Strengths During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Character Growth Following Collective Life Events: A Study on Perceived and Measured Changes in Character Strengths During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Character growth following collective life events: A study on perceived and measured changes in character strengths during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Character Strengths’ Change During COVID-19

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About