Psychological science has a huge library of research on personality, some of which I have talked about in this blog. We know a lot about how personality shapes our life decisions, and vice versa. One of the most commonly used personality theories is one called the "Big 5", which identifies 5 major categories of personality dimension. This theory helps us understand variations in personality by acknowledging individual differences across the range of each of the 5 dimensions. An easy way to remember this personality theory is to us the acronym "OCEAN". Each letter in the acronym represents one end of the range for each category.
"O" represents 'openness to new experiences'. This trait is often manifested in behaviors such as curious, with the other end of that range being described as 'consistent and cautious'.
"C" represents 'conscientiousness'. This trait is often manifested in behaviors such as organized and efficient, with the other end of that range being described as careless or extravagant.
"E" represents extroversion. This trait is often manifested in behaviors such as outgoing and energetic, with the other end of that range being described as reserved.
"A" represents agreeableness.This trait is often manifested in behaviors such as friendly and understanding, with the other end of that range being described as callous or harsh.
"N" represents neuroticism. This trait is often manifested in behaviors such as worried or anxious, with the other end of that range being described as confident and resilient.
You can probably identify yourself and others in this personality theory, recognizing where you fall on the spectrum or range for each personality trait. It helps us understand ourselves and others, who we work well with or find compatible as friends or partners. This is helpful and the theory is used in organizations quite often to determine fit for certain careers, especially areas like firefighting, where traits like resilience are incredibly important.
There is another way to conceive of personality, though, that has grown from the field of positive psychology. This personality theory is called 'Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV for short)'. That name sounds a bit like a moral judgement, in my opinion, but it is not that at all. This theory looks in more detail at the differences in human behaviors and motivations than the Big 5, and has some interesting research about how we access those 'strengths and virtues' to benefit ourselves as well as society. So, let's dive into CSV, and how it can help us practice resilience in our current state of the world.
I'm not going to explain each CSV category to you here, like I did with the Big 5, because it is a longer and more detailed list of categories. But I give you a synopsis. The CSV is based on a huge database of research done by over 50 psychological scientists across multiple countries and age groups. The research is validated and very credible! There are 6 major categories of character strengths, which highlight individual strengths that we each may possess. Each strength has virtues connected to it, ways in which we manifest that strength. For instance, the strength of wisdom includes the virtues of curiosity, creativity, judgement, love of learning and perspective. If you have a personal strength of wisdom, you may embrace one, several, or all of those virtues. Here are the six categories of personal strengths according to this theory, and their virtues:
Wisdom: curiosity, creativity, judgement, love of learning, perspective
Courage: bravery, perseverance, honesty, zest
Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
Justice: teamwork, fairness, leadership
Temperance: forgiveness, humility, self-regulation, prudence
Transcendence: gratitude, hope, humor, appreciation of beauty and excellence, spirituality
Aside from the difference in the categories, there is a huge benefit from looking at personality through the lens of the CSV theory. What we know from the research on CSV is that knowing your strengths and putting them to use in your daily life, especially in new ways, strongly contributes to your own well-being, and it turns out it also helps society. You may be thinking, of course it contributes to my well-being when I use my strengths regularly. Who would want to access their weaknesses? That is true, in short. I don't want to remind myself regularly of the things I am not that great at doing. But it is not that simple.
First, many of us don't typically think about ourselves in this perspective. We don't typically think about ourselves as transcendent, or courageous, for instance. And, most importantly, we don't plan our day, week, month or year around our personality. That is where this theory of personality helps us be our best self. It turns out, if we think about our goals, or behaviors, our daily plans as opportunities to access our personal strengths, and use them for our own benefit and the world's benefit, well, we all gain from this. So, I am going to encourage you to take the CSV survey and see what your personal strengths are according to this research. Then, here is the good part, when you take the free online test, you can also access a report that tells you how you can use those strengths in unique ways. Research on the CSV indicates that using our strengths in new ways really helps our well-being. There may be things you do all the time that access those strengths, but finding 'new' ways is the key to ramping up our well-being. And who doesn't need a little well-being boost in the 2020 shit show?
So, here is the link to the website where the researchers have developed a free survey, with free results. Check it out. And put those strengths to good use. I know I could sure use this boost of well-being, and the world NO DOUBT could, too.
Here you go: https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register
Be well, stay safe, and take care.
Komentáre