tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4857025261093325347.post8277540489876011688..comments2024-02-14T00:54:48.399-08:00Comments on Mindful Psych: Is there anything special about using character strengths?Jessiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878793880731453949noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4857025261093325347.post-76326744822297393522017-11-28T07:43:35.169-08:002017-11-28T07:43:35.169-08:00Thank you very much for this post. As a life coach...Thank you very much for this post. As a life coach, I've found increasing pressure in the profession to use the VIA assessment to help clients "discover" their character strengths (the scare quotes indicate my suspicion that most people know very well what their main strengths are without answering a lot of general questions). I have many of the same reservations you express. I'm glad to read of the study you cite which, I agree with you, is not random enough. My thought is that in order to properly mimic the process by which people are encouraged to work on specific strengths, one method would be to randomize the characteristics and generate them using a computer program, or to have researchers pick blindly and assign five of them to each study subject, just as randomly. The notion that these five traits were "selected...for you" is probably psychologically important for the participants -- and, I suggest, would more closely parallel the usual suggestions than giving participants the option to select something new to work on every day. I believe that incorporating the notion that experts are giving subjects specific traits to work on is important to include in a study. <br /><br />By the way, I took the VIA assessment in 2014 (found it annoying and the results useless) and, in late 2017, took it again in case the advocates for VIA in the coaching world might be right. I still found it overly general, and the results useless. Then I realized I still had access to my 2014 results. When comparing the two, I found that of the 24 traits, only four remained in the same positions. Fully 25% shifted position significantly (that is, by three or more positions), the rest by one or two positions. To me, this suggests that there's nothing "core" or "essential" about these positions. Furthermore, some studies have demonstrated that, rather than focusing on the results of the VIA assessment, it is better for people to focus on those five or so traits that have been found to be most correlated with life satisfaction, such as gratitude, zest, love, and hope. In fact, other studies indicate that factors such as intelligence, gender, and neurosis correlate with certain traits more than others, and may skew the results of self-assessments. These, in addition to other more general critiques of self-assessments as objective measures, stand as strong arguments against the use of VIA and other such assessments as tools for raising the quality of an individual's life. <br /><br />I note that the VIA assessment and a perfunctory report of results is offered online for free, but that further reports and more in-depth discussions are only offered on a fee-paid basis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com