The Practice of Character Strengths: Unifying Definitions, Principles, and Exploration of What’s Soaring, Emerging, and Ripe With Potential in Science and in Practice

Abstract

What does it mean to be “strengths-based” or to be a “strengths-based practitioner?” These are diffuse areas that are generic and ill-defined. Part of the confusion arises from the customary default of practitioners and leaders across many cultures to label anything positive or complimentary as “strengths-based,” whether that be an approach, a theoretical orientation, an intervention, or a company. Additional muddle is created by many researchers and practitioners not making distinctions between very different categories of “strength” in human beings – strengths of character, of talent/ability, of interest/passion, of skill/competency, to name a few. To add clarity and unification across professions, we offer seven characteristics and a comprehensive definition for a character strengths-based practitioner. We center on the type of strength referred to as character strengths and explore six guiding principles for understanding character strengths (e.g., character is plural; character is being and doing) and their practical corollaries. Reflecting this foundation and based on character strengths research, our longstanding work with strengths, discussions with practitioners across the globe, and a practitioner survey asking about strength practices (N = 113), we point out several character strengths practices or approaches we describe as soaring (e.g., explore and encourage signature strengths; practice strengths-spotting), emerging (e.g., the integration of mindfulness and character strengths), or ripe with potential (e.g., phasic strengths; the tempering effect; the towing effect). We use the same framework for describing general research domains. Some areas of research in character strengths are soaring with more than 25 studies (e.g., workplace/organizations), some are emerging with a handful of studies (e.g., health/medicine), and others are ripe with potential that have none or few studies yet opportunity looms large for integrating character science (e.g., peace/conflict studies). Using this framework, we seek to advance the exchange and collaboration between researcher and practitioner, as well as to advance the science and practice of character strengths.

Beyond the “Third Wave of Positive Psychology”: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

“…Such an approach that includes moral behavior takes hand with research on character strengths as conceptualized in PP literature (cf. Peterson and Seligman, 2004;Niemiec and Pearce, 2021). In the postdisciplinary field of well-being studies as conceptualized in this manuscript, aspects such as interconnectedness/relatedness, virtues/morality/ethics, and meaning of, in, and to life, are all deeply interwoven in the concept of cohering harmony and harmonization on a broader level than only the individual person and in social systems.…”

The Role of General and Study-Related Intraindividual Factors on Academic Learning Outcomes under COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis

“…Although having been recognized as crucial for 21st century students to approach complex challenges and changing environmental conditions [19], these acquirable personal qualities have been studied mainly in relation to cognitive academic learning outcomes such as academic achievement [20][21][22][23], and much less with reference to learning behaviors or emotions. This lack of knowledge hampers their appli-cability to the education context, making it harder to devise strategies and intervention programs to nurture students through multi-componential trainings [24].…”

Future Perspectives on Positive Psychology: A Research Agenda

“…Such an approach that includes moral behavior takes hand with research on character strengths as conceptualized in PP literature (cf. Niemiec and Pearce, 2021). In the postdisciplinary field of well-being studies as conceptualized in this manuscript, aspects such as interconnectedness/relatedness, virtues/morality/ethics, and meaning of, in, and to life, are all deeply interwoven in the concept of cohering harmony and harmonization on a broader level than only the individual person and in social systems.…”