Authors Peterson and Seligman presented their Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues in 2004 and created a defining moment in the research field of positive psychology. They aimed for their classification to provide a unified vocabulary for researching positive aspects of personality. Character strengths are positive and morally valued characteristics, related to many positive outcomes. In my research, I was interested in how character strengths are related to values, personality and subjective well-being and whether they, along with personality characteristics and values, contribute to predicting of subjective well-being. My sample consisted of 214 people, aged 18 to 30 (M = 24,49 years, SD = 3,04), of which 71,5 % were women. I used four questionnaires: Character Strengths Rating Form (CSRF; Ruch, Martínez-Martí, Proyer in Harzer, 2014), Short Schwartz's Value Scale (SSVS; Lindeman and Verkasalo, 2005), Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHC-SF; Keyes, 2002) and Big Five Aspects Scales (BFAS; DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson, 2007). The results showed significant correlations between character strengths, that are also defined as values in action, with values and the big five personality traits, but these correlations are not so high that the separate existence of the mentioned constructs would be unnecessary. Character strengths are also correlated with subjective well-being and are therefore linked to one of the basic components of mental health as they also add a significant contribution to predicting subjective well-being. I also presented some limitations of my study and provided guidelines for further research.
|