This paper examines positive psychology as an emerging discipline introduced by Martin Seligman that shifts psychology's focus from treating pathology to understanding human strengths and virtues. The author uses the VIA Inventory of Strengths to identify five personal character strengths: hope, transcendence, creativity, open-mindedness, and love of learning. The paper explores how these strengths developed through self-assessment and feedback from family and friends, analyzes their impact on physical, emotional, and psychological well-being across life domains including health and career, and discusses methods for further developing these strengths through increased awareness and situational understanding.
Positive psychology is a relatively new orientation in the field of psychology that focuses on human strengths and virtues. This discipline was introduced by Martin Seligman in 1998 to provide a different approach to psychology—a shift from a negative approach toward the positive aspects of human life. Since its introduction, positive psychology has continued to experience significant growth and development, largely attributed to increased attention on positive aspects of human existence.
Based on the specific components of positive psychology, I have identified my personal psychological strengths through the VIA Classification of Strengths. My personal psychological strengths include the character strengths of hope, transcendence, creativity, open-mindedness, and love of learning. These strengths were identified using the scoring methods in the VIA Inventory of Strengths, which contains psychometric properties crucial to determining behavior, as well as through discussions with family and friends regarding my personal positive attributes.
These personal psychological strengths have considerable impact on my life with regard to health, career, education, and relationships. Generally, these strengths contribute to improved physical, psychological, and emotional health and well-being. Despite their positive impact, these psychological strengths can be developed through various approaches, as character strengths are not fixed attributes for every setting and time. Development occurs through enhanced awareness and understanding of situational requirements for using personal psychological strengths effectively.
Positive psychology is an emerging discipline introduced by Martin Peterson Seligman in 1998 when he was the president of the American Psychological Association. Seligman introduced this concept when he was encouraging psychologists to remember that the mission of psychology is to nurture genius and develop human strength. As part of his initiative in the psychology field, Seligman embarked on a mission to develop a new direction, which resulted in the creation of a new orientation focused on using psychological theory, research, and intervention measures to gain insights regarding positive, innovative, adaptive, and emotionally satisfying elements of human behavior. This orientation in psychology achieves its goals through identification and classification of psychological strengths that can be developed and applied in daily life.
Seligman developed this orientation following initiatives to encourage psychologists to remember the mission of the discipline—building human strength and developing genius. During this period, psychologists had largely omitted this mission, creating a new focus in the field. Actually, psychology was largely shifting toward an emphasis on studying weakness and damage and treating what is broken. Seligman introduced the new concept by arguing that psychology also entails studying virtue and strength as well as developing what is best within an individual.
The discipline of positive psychology can be considered an initiative to encourage psychologists to embrace a more open and grateful view of human potential, abilities, and intentions. As a result, this discipline examines the potential for doing the right thing that every individual has access to and can become a reality in their lives. Positive psychology can be defined as the scientific evaluation of what contributes to the growth and development of individuals and communities. It is characterized by three major dimensions: the subjective level, individual level, and societal level. At the subjective level, positive psychology examines positive subjective states or emotions; at the individual level, it looks at positive individual traits or behavioral patterns. At the societal level, positive psychology examines the creation, growth, and maintenance of positive institutions.
Since Seligman's presidential address in 1998, the field of positive psychology has experienced tremendous growth. This growth is largely attributed to the fact that positive psychology provides a different view of the discipline. Conventional psychology has largely focused on and examined the negative side of life with a view toward providing treatment for what is broken. Positive psychology has developed rapidly because of its emphasis on the positive aspects of human functioning, which has influenced theories on human happiness and flourishing.
Positive psychology focuses on the positive aspects of human functioning through identification and classification of psychological strengths. This discipline is an overall term used to refer to theories and research regarding what makes life valuable. Consequently, the strengths of positive experiences and character, like a fulfilling life, are among the core concerns of this discipline. Psychological strengths are defined as positive characteristics that are usually evident in feelings, behaviors, and thoughts (Park, Peterson & Seligman, 2004, p. 603). These positive characteristics or traits exist in different degrees and can be evaluated as personal differences.
In relation to literature on positive psychology, psychological strengths are based on the classification of virtues and character strengths. Generally, there are six classifications of virtues, which in turn contribute to the emergence of 24 character strengths. These classifications of virtues are wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence (Seligman et al., 2005, p. 412).
The character strengths under wisdom and knowledge include creativity, perspective, love of learning, curiosity, and open-mindedness, while those under courage include zest, bravery, authenticity, and persistence. Character strengths under humanity are social intelligence, kindness, and love, whereas those under justice include leadership, teamwork, and fairness. The virtue of temperance has three character strengths: modesty, forgiveness, and prudence, while transcendence includes humor, gratitude, appreciation, religiousness, and hope.
Psychological strengths differ from one individual to another because of differences in the degree of positive characteristics. The VIA Classification of Strengths is one probable approach to good character in relation to individual differences. This classification of strengths has resulted in the development and use of the VIA Inventory of Strengths, which is a self-report questionnaire that examines the degree to which certain statements reflect each of the character strengths applicable to an individual. According to Peterson and Seligman (2003), the VIA Classification of Strengths is designed to be the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in the field of psychology with regard to studying character.
Through the use of the VIA Classification of Strengths, I identified my personal psychological strengths. After going through each of the statements that reflect character strengths applicable to my daily life, I identified my psychological strengths. One of my psychological strengths is the character strength of hope, since I have an overwhelming belief that I will succeed with the goals I establish for my life and future. Secondly, I discovered that I have the character strength of transcendence, especially gratitude and appreciation of beauty and excellence. This character strength is evident in my life since I usually express gratitude toward excellence and beauty and tend to count and appreciate my blessings on a daily basis.
Third, I have the psychological strengths of creativity and open-mindedness since I usually think through things and examine them from varying perspectives before making conclusions. The other personal psychological strength is love of learning, since I am passionate about mastering new skills and tend to be curious about the world around me. These five strengths form the foundation of my personal character profile and influence how I approach challenges and relationships.
The assessment and identification of my personal psychological strengths was based on the scoring method required in the VIA Inventory of Strengths tool. I utilized the information on scoring provided by Park and Peterson as well as means of practice based on signature strengths in innovative and different ways (Kobau et al., 2011, p. e4). The use of this tool was crucial in identifying personal psychological strengths since it consists of psychometric properties that are vital in behavioral science. The psychometric properties helped in ensuring that the scores generated for each of the statements was the most suitable reflection of my character strengths.
The identification process also involved talking to my family and friends regarding considerations about my positive attributes. The involvement of my family and friends helped in providing insights regarding my behaviors and positive characteristics. This triangulation approach—combining self-report data with external validation from people who know me well—strengthened the reliability of my strength identification and ensured that the strengths I identified were genuinely reflective of how I actually present in the world.
Personal psychological strengths play an important part in various aspects of life such as health, career, education, and relationships with regard to high performance and greater well-being (Linley et al., 2011). These psychological strengths have usually been linked to subjective and psychological well-being by influencing patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. My personal psychological strengths will contribute to better health since they help in the formation of positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward physical health and well-being.
With regard to career, the strength of love of learning contributes to development in education and career growth through mastery of new knowledge, skills, and abilities. This strength positions me to remain engaged with professional development throughout my career. Given the influence of these strengths on physical, emotional, and psychological well-being, they contribute to generating better ways to relate with others. The strength of transcendence, for example, helps me recognize and appreciate the best in other people, which strengthens my relationships.
Despite contributing to better health and well-being in various aspects of life, personal psychological strengths can be developed. The development of these strengths is partly attributed to the fact that they are not fixed across every setting and time. One of the ways to develop my personal psychological strengths is through improved awareness, since increased attention to them is beneficial (Biswas-Diener, Kashdan & Minhas, 2011, p. 106). The other way of developing these strengths is through understanding situational requirements to determine when to use them most effectively. This contributes to improved effort toward the development of these personal psychological strengths and their application in varied life contexts.
Positive psychology is a new orientation in the field of psychology that provides a distinctive approach toward positive aspects of human life. This field focuses on human strengths and virtues rather than the negative aspects of life. Through this orientation, people can identify their own personal psychological strengths and develop them. The identification and cultivation of character strengths offer a meaningful pathway to greater well-being, more effective relationships, and sustained personal growth across the lifespan.
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