The relationships between character strengths and life fulfillment in the view of lay-people in Argentina

ALEJANDRO CASTRO SOLANO; ALEJANDRO COSENTINO & ALEJANDRO CASTRO SOLANO

Interdiscipinaria

CIIPME

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2016 vol. 33 p. 65 - 80

The idea underlying this work is that characterstrengths are an essential component for achievingThe idea underlying this work is that character strengths are an essential component for achieving life fulfillment. In order to determine the extent to which strengths of character are essential to living a good life, this study was conducted from lay-people?s point of view. This work took as theoretical framework Seligman´s recent theory, known under the acronym of PERMA, which proposes that human strengths are vehicles for achieving positive emotions, engagement (flow), enriching relationships, meaning in life, and accomplishment of personal goals. This study considered life fulfillment beyond the hedonic conception of subjective well-being emphasizing the importance of both individual and social meaning; the relationship with others; and the achievement of personal goals, among others. A sample of 687 adults evaluated the importance of 24 character strengths from the Values in Action classification for the five areas that contribute to a fulfilling life: personal well-being, personal goals, personal relationships, work relationships, and contributing to a better country. This study used a similar methodology to Biswas-Diener (2006), who studied the attitudes towards the 24 VIA character strengths with members of dissimilar cultural groups. An instrument was designed comprising 24 items in a survey-format. Each item assessed one character strength for each of the five areas under study. Cronbach?s alpha reliability test for the overall scale was .98. Data was analyzed by calculating frequencies (e.g., the degree of endorsement to the character strengths in relation to life fulfillment) and conducting chi-square tests (e.g. gender and age differences). The character strengths over the 90th percentile were considered. The results showed that the character strength honesty is an important personal resource for the five areas studied. Specifically, love, honesty and zest were the major character strengths for personal well-being; persistence and self-regulation for achieving life goals; honesty and gratitude for developing positive personal relationships; citizenship and fairness for positive work relationships; and, fairness and honesty for contributing to a better country. Differences by gender were found. For the majority of the areas of life explored, women placed more importance on character strengths than men. The main finding of this study is that people consider the strengths of character from the VIA classification as important elements for life fulfillment. Most participants in this study showed a high degree of endorsement (60 to 70%) to each of the character strengths of the VIA classification for all the areas, i.e., achieving personal well-being, accomplishing life goals, enriching personal relationships, working well with others, and contributing to a better country. Based on these results, it can be concluded that from the point of view of lay-people, character strengths are not only fundamental to "feel good? but also to ?function well? both in relation to themselves and to the world. Overall, intervention strategies, from the positive psychology perspective, tend to be generic and unspecific, without considering individuals? particular points of view. Knowing people?s implicit ideas in relation to the strengths that contribute most to life fulfillment would allow generating more accurate and culturally adjusted interventions to the particular group in question. This adjustment not only operates as a key motivational aspect but also a reinforcement of the effect of the intervention. Future studies should experimentally compare the effectiveness of generic interventions on character strengths versus interventions focused on those strengths that the group under study deems important, especially in Latino populations in which the efficacy of these interventions has not been tested yet, and little has been studied in relation to this topic.