Embracing Strengths for a Meaningful Life

2. In his own words… “The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living. The meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power, or goodness. A life that does this is pregnant with meaning, and if God comes at the end, such a life is sacred.” - Martin Seligman

3. Discovering Human Strengths Prepared by Niel Steve M. Kintanar, MA Department of Psychology (3rd Floor, PE Building), University of San Carlos (Talamban Campus)

6. FEEDBACK SENTENCE STEM • I admire your__________ • Your _________ works! • I experience your ________.

7. A Definition • Strengths maybe defined as that which helps a person to cope with life or that which makes life more fulfilling for oneself or others. • Strengths are NOT fixed personality traits, instead they develop from dynamic, contextual process rooted deeply in one’s culture. • Our strengths are the lenses we use to process information, to experience others, to view time and structure, to accommodate or to make change in our lives, and to communicate with others.

8. A History • Human strength has been discussed by classic Eastern and Western philosophers, but strengths have escaped intense focus from psychologists until fairly recently. • Interestingly, the discussion of strengths appeared in the business literature forty years ago with the work of Drucker (1967) and subsequently through the work of Gallup (e.g., Buckingham & Clifton, 2001; Clifton & Anderson, 2002; Clifton & Nelson, 1992) • Now strengths are being examined and conceptualized as pieces of a larger, holistic understanding of positive human functioning rather than as isolated constructs, as they were in classical philosophy. Indeed, we are moving toward a much fuller picture of positive psychological functioning (Linley & Harrington, 2006).

9. Significance of Strengths • Our strengths convey a great deal of information about us. They reveal what we value in life, what we have spent our time on, our preferences for the manner in which we engage our environment, what we do well in life…

10. Strength Estrangement • Lack of awareness of one’s talents and strengths, • Or if such awareness exists, the lack of direction in using one’s strengths to achieve desired goals or to bring about happiness. • Also, an individual’s alienation from his natural talents and the individual takes place.

11. Our strengths provide internal consistency regarding who we are. • Our strengths also help us construct meaning out of life. • Our strengths provide a launching point for our core selves and unite the various relational selves. • Our strengths indicate the kinds of relationship we have been able to form in life with others.

12. It is hypothesized… Activate your character strength in your student life, love life, work life, personal life, your life as a whole • SATISFIED • HAPPY • HIGHER WELL BEING • FLOURISHING Feel ENGAGE and experience FLOW

13. Deficit Mindset vs. Strengths Mindset

14. Comparison between Strength Perspective and the Deficit Perspective (in Counseling)

15. Comparison between Strength Perspective and the Deficit Perspective (in Counseling)

16. Comparison between Strength Perspective and the Deficit Perspective (in Counseling)

17. Two Common Comprehensive Assessment of Human Strength • Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), is based on the belief that strengths are the lived manifestations of virtues and are associated with well-being; it measures 24 character strengths. 2. The Clifton Strengths – Finder (Asplund, Lopez, Hodges, & Harter, 2007; Buckingham & Clifton, 2001; Lopez, Hodges, & Harter, 2005), is based on a platform of 34 talent themes that are prevalent in society and predictive of educational and vocational success.

18. 1. VIA (Values in Action) Classification of Strengths “A Manual of Sanities” that complements the DSM-IV. Focuses on what is right about people and specifically about the strengths of character that make the good life possible (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

19. What are Virtues? • Are the core characteristics valued by moral philosophers and religious thinkers • Six broad categories: wisdom, courage, love, justice, temperance, and transcendence. • Emerged consistently from historical surveys. • These are universal, perhaps grounded in biology through an evolutionary process that selected for these predispositions toward moral excellence as means of solving the important tasks necessary for survival of the species.

20. What are character strengths? • Are the psychological ingredients—processes or mechanisms — that define the virtues. • Said another way, they are distinguishable routes to displaying one or another of the virtues. • These strengths as ubiquitously recognized and valued, although a given individual will rarely, if ever, display all of them (Walker & Pitts, 1998). • Character strengths are viewed as dimensional traits—individual differences—that exist in degrees. • Someone in good character displays 1 or 2 strengths within a virtue. A good character comprises a family of positive traits. • Example WISDOM (creativity, curiosity, love of learning, open-mindedness, having a big picture of life perspective)

21. What are character strengths? Character strength is “ a disposition to act, desire, and feel that involves the exercise of judgment and leads to a recognizable human excellence or instance of human flourishing.”

26. Virtue 1: Wisdom & Knowledge • Cognitive strengths that entails the acquisition and use of knowledge. • Curiosity and Interest of the world • Love of learning • Judgement/ critical thinking/ open-mindedness. • Ingenuity/ originality/ ingenuity/ creativity • Perspective

27. CS 1: Curiosity/ Interest of the World“Ask questions, lots of them!” • It entails openness to experience and flexibility about matters that do not fit one’s preconceptions. • It is actively engaging in novelty, and the passive absorption of information does not display this strength. • Opposite: Being easily bored. • People high with this CS are interested in exploring new ideas, activities and experiences, and they also have a strong desire to increase their own personal knowledge.

28. CS 2: Love of learning “Learn something from every situation.” • Mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge, whether on one's own or formally; obviously related to the strength of curiosity but goes beyond it to describe the tendency to add systematically to what one knows • Always loved school, reading, museums – anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn. • Love of learning describes the way in which a person engages new information and skills. Love of learning is a strength that teachers would like to see in their students, parents want to encourage in their children, therapists support in their clients, and employers try to foster in their employees. It has important motivational consequences because it helps people persist through challenges, setbacks and negative feedback.  

29. CS 3: Judgment , critical thinking, open-mindedness “Examine the details” • Thinking things through and examining from all sides are important aspects of who you are. One does not jump into conclusions but will rely on solid evidence to make decisions. • Exercise in sifting information objectively and rationally, in the service of the good self and others. • Reality orientation vs. logical errors/irrational thoughts (overpersonalization, “it is always my fault). • Opposite: Thinking of ways that favor and confirm what you already believe. • The strength of judgment is a corrective strength in that it counteracts faulty thinking, such as favoring your current views or favoring ideas that are considered the dominant view, and therefore giving less attention to the less-dominant view. It is the willingness to search actively for evidence against your favored beliefs, plans or goals and to weigh all of the evidence fairly when it is available.

30. CS 4: Creativity (Originality & Ingenuity)“Do Things in a Different Way.” • Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it. • Finding novel ways yet appropriate behaviors to reach a goal. • Rarely does something in a conventional way. • There are two essential components to Creativity- originality and adaptiveness. A creative individual generates ideas or behaviors that are novel or unusual and these make a positive contribution to the individual's life or the lives of others. • The big C and the small c creativity.

31. CS 5: Perspective (Wisdom)“Offer good advice.” • The most mature strength in this category. • Being able to provide wise counsel to others; having ways of looking at the world that make sense to oneself and to other people. • Other people will seek you out to draw on your experience to help them solve problems and gain perspective for themselves. • Perspective is distinct from intelligence but represents a high level of knowledge, the capacity to give advice and to recognize and weight multiple sides before making decisions. It allows the individual to address important questions about the conduct and meaning of life.

32. Virtue 2: Courage • Emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of external or internal opposition. • Valor and bravery • Perseverance/ industry/ diligence • Integrity/ genuineness/ honesty • Zest/ passion/ enthusiasm

33. CS 6: Valor and Bravery“Face what you are afraid of.” • Not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain; speaking up for what is right even if there is opposition; acting on convictions (thoughts and feelings) even if unpopular, difficult, or dangerous; includes physical bravery but is not limited to it. • Resisting the behavioral response of flight and facing the fearful situation, despite the discomfort produced by subjective and physical reactions (physical courage). • Taking stands that you know are unpopular and likely to bring you ill fortune (moral courage). • A positive stance needed to face serious ordeals or persistent illness without the loss of dignity (psychological courage).

34. CS 7: Persistence“Don't Give Up.” Perseverance, industriousness: Finishing what one starts (with good cheer and minimal complaints); persisting in a course of action in spite of obstacles. You do what you say will do and sometimes more, never less. But not obsessive to the pursuit of unattainable goals. The truly industrious person is flexible, realistic, and NOT perfectionistic. Perseverance involves the voluntary continuation of a goal-directed action despite the presence of challenges, difficulties, and discouragement. There are two vectors of perseverance. It requires both effort for a task and duration to keep the task up. 

35. CS 8: Integrity“Tell people the truth, (almost) all the time.” Authenticity, honesty: Presenting oneself in a genuine way; taking responsibility for one's feeling and actions. Honest person, not only by speaking the truth but by living your life in a genuine and authentic way. Down to earth without pretense; Real” person. More than just telling the truth to others but representing yourself – intentions and commitments – to others and to yourself in a sincere fashion, whether by word or deed. his strength involves accurately representing your internal states, intentions, and commitments, both publicly and privately. The strength of honesty is often linked to self-concordance- the extent to which your goals accurately represent your implicit interests and values. Honesty allows people to take responsibility for their feelings and behaviors, owning them, and reaping benefits by doing so.

36. CS 9: Zest“When in doubt, take action!” • Vitality enthusiasm, vigor, energy: Approaching life with excitement and energy; feeling alive and activated. • Spirited person. Throwing oneself, body and soul into the activities that they undertake. • Passion. • Zest is a dynamic strengths that is directly related to physical and psychological wellness. This strength has the strongest ties to overall life satisfaction and a life of engagement. 

37. Virtue 3: Humanity • Interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others. • Acknowledges the worth of the self and the other person. • Social intelligence • Kindness and generosity • Loving and allowing oneself to be love.

38. CS 10: Social Intelligence“Be friendly.” • Emotional intelligence, personal intelligence • Being aware of the motives and feelings of other oneself and other people, and you can respond to them. • Personal intelligence consists of finely tuned access to your own feelings and the ability to use that knowledge to understand and guide your behavior. • Social Intelligence is the ability to notice differences among others, especially with respect to their moods, temperament, motivations, and intentions – and then act upon these distinctions (socially skilled action). • Social intelligence involves two general components: • Social awareness: what we sense about others • Social facility: what we do with our awareness

39. CS 11: Kindness“Be helpful, err toward caring.” • Generosity, nurturance, care, compassion, altruistic love, "niceness": • Doing favors and good deeds for others. • Encompasses various ways of relating to another person that are guided by that other person’s best interests, and these may override your won immediate wishes and needs. • Kind individuals believe that others are worthy of attention and affirmation for their own sake as human beings, not out of s sense of duty or principle. There are three traits of altruistic personalities: • Empathy/sympathy • Moral reasoning • Social responsibility

40. CS 12: Love and Be Loved“Be a warm and strong listener.” Valuing close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. More than just the Western notion of romance. People that you have deep and sustained feelings also feels the same way about you.

41. Virtue 4: Justice • Civic strengths that underlie healthy community life. • This goes beyond one on one relationships to how one relates to larger groups, such as family, community, the nation, the world. • Citizenship • Fairness and Equity • Leadership

42. CS 13: Citizenship/ Teamwork“Work side-by-side with others.” • Social responsibility, loyalty, teamwork: • Working well and excels as a member of a group or team. • Loyal and dedicated to the group, you always do your share, and you work hard for the success of the group. • Not mindless and automatic obedience but also include respect for authority. • Teamwork is closely related to 3 other concepts: • Citizenship: responsibility toward one's community • Loyalty: unwavering trust for a group • Patriotism: loyalty toward one's homeland/nation without hostility toward other nations.

43. CS 14: Fairness“Treat people the way you want to be treated.” • Treating all people the same according to notions of fairness and justice; not letting personal feelings bias decisions about others. • Giving everyone a chance. • Fairness is a cognitive judgment capacity that involves reasoning and making judgments. It involves 2 types of reasoning: • Justice reasoning which emphasizes logic and weighing principles to determine moral rights and responsibilities. • Care reasoning which includes empathy and compassion; the ability to put yourself in somebody else's shoes.

44. CS 15: Leadership“Organize activities for others.” • Encouraging a group of which one is a member to get things done and at the same maintain time good relations within the group. • Doing a good job organizing activities and seeing to it that they happen while maintaining good relations among group members. (Effective and humane) • Acknowledges responsibility for mistakes and is peaceable. • Leadership is a social phenomenon that can be distinguished into two areas: • Practice- defining, establishing, identifying or translating direction • Personal quality- the motivation and capacity to seek out, attain and carry out leader roles. • There are two types of leaders: • Transactional leaders- this type of leader clarifies responsibilities, expectations, and the tasks to be accomplished. • Transformational leaders- this leader motivates their followers to perform at an extremely high level, fostering a climate of trust and commitment to the organization and its goals.

45. Virtue 5: Temperance • Strengths that protect against excess. • Appropriate and moderate expression of your appetite and wants. • The temperate person does not suppress motives, but waits for opportunities to satisfy them so that harm is not done to self or others. 16. Self control or self regulation 17. Prudence, discretion, caution 18. Humility and modesty 19. Forgiveness and mercy

46. CS 16: Self-regulation“Manage your feelings.” Self-control: Regulating what one feels and does; being disciplined; controlling one's appetites and emotions. Can easily hold desires, needs, and impulses in check when it is appropriate. It is not enough to know what is correct; you must also be able to put this knowledge into action! Self-Regulation can be viewed as a resource that can be depleted and fatigued. A useful metaphor can be that self-regulation acts like a muscle, which can be exhausted through over-exertion or strengthened through regular practice. 

47. CS 17: Prudence“Think before you act.” • Discretion, caution: Being careful about one's choices; not taking undue risks; not saying or doing things that might later be regretted. • Prudence is waiting until all the votes are in before embarking on a course of action. • They are good at resisting impulses about short term goals for the sake of long term success (far sighted and deliberative). • Prudence involves far-sighted planning as well as short-term, goal-directed planning. It is often referred to as cautious wisdom, practical wisdom, and practical reason. 

48. CS 18: Humility/Modesty“Place attention on others.” Letting one's accomplishments speak for themselves; not regarding oneself as more special than one is. Unpretentious. Personal aspirations, victories, and defeats are unimportant. In the larger scheme of things, what you have accomplished or suffered does not amount to much. A common misconception is that humility involves having a low self-esteem, a sense of unworthiness, and/or a lack of self-focus. However, true humility involves an accurate self-assessment, recognition of limitations, keeping accomplishments in perspective, and forgetting of the self. Humble people do not distort information to defend or verify their own image, and they do not need to see-or present- themselves as being better than they actually are. 

49. CS 19: Forgiveness & Mercy“Let It Go.” • Forgiving those who have done wrong; accepting the shortcomings of others; giving people a second chance; not being vengeful. • Guiding principle is mercy, not revenge. • Forgiveness represents a set of beneficial changes that occur within an individual who has been offended or hurt by someone else. When people forgive, their basic motivations or action tendencies regarding the transgressor become more positive (benevolent, kind, or generous) and not negative (vengeful or avoidant). • It is important to distinguish forgiveness from: • condoning (removes the offense) • forgetting (removes the awareness) • reconciliation (restores the relationship) • ​Instead forgiveness is a strength that we employ to protect ourselves from the feeling of hatred. It is a specialized form of mercy; a general concept of feeling kindness and compassion towards others. 

50. Virtue 6: Transcendence • Strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning. • Emotional strengths that reach outside and beyond you to connect you to something larger and more permanent: to other people, to the future, to evolution, to the divine, or to the universe. 20. Appreciation of beauty and excellence 21. Gratitude 22. Hope, optimism, future-mindedness 23. Humor (playfulness) 24. Spirituality