Character strengths and clinical presentation

Abstract

Three models are described that attempt to integrate clinical diagnosis with the strengths-based model introduced by Peterson and Seligman (2004 Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]). The strengths as syndrome model proposes conceptualizing clinical diagnoses in terms of excesses and deficiencies in strengths. The strengths as symptoms model suggests conceptualizing clinical symptoms as excesses or deficiencies in strengths. After reviewing these two models, we introduce a third. The strengths as moderators model suggests that signature or deficient strengths can serve moderators of clinical presentation within traditional diagnostic categories. This differs from the prior models primarily in offering a complement rather than alternative to traditional diagnostic formulation. A clinical case is provided highlighting the differences. The three approaches are not incompatible with each other, and in combination may provide practitioners a variety of perspectives for employing strength-based concepts in clinical interactions.     

Muscularity rationality: An examination of the use of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) upon exercisers at risk of muscle dysmorphia

Research in the area of body image suggests that muscularity dissatisfaction is a prominent concern among men and women. At its apex, this concern manifests into a convoluted and debilitating body image disorder termed muscle dysmorphia (MD), characterised by a marked preoccupation with ones (subjective) muscularity and leanness inadequacy. Prevention of MD is critical, however, empirical evidence informing intervention protocols are profoundly scarce. The principal aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a one-to-one Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) intervention, comprising five, 60-min one-to-one sessions, in decreasing MD symptomatology, irrational beliefs and increasing unconditional self-acceptance in a mixed-sex cohort of four exercisers at-risk of MD. A single-case, staggered multiple-baseline across participant A-B design was adopted to examine the effects of REBT. Visual and statistical analyses, and social validation data, indicated reductions in MD, irrational beliefs, and increases in unconditional self-acceptance across all participants from pre-post intervention phases, with reductions upheld at a 6-month follow-up. This study highlights the potential role of rational and irrational beliefs in the onset and maintenance of MD. This study is the first to report the application of a CBT approach to MD symptomology, and has demonstrated the use of REBT as a potential preventative approach for individuals at risk of MD. Practitioners working with individuals at risk of MD should take a benefit-focussed approach to support individuals in developing unconditional self-acceptance beliefs, as well as a problem-focussed approach to support individuals in reducing irrational beliefs.     

Positive psychology and virtue: Values in action

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an overview of the issues and themes that were discussed on an interdisciplinary panel which occurred at the American Philosophical Association’s pacific division meeting in April of 2017. The panel focused on the connections between the VIA classification of virtues and character strengths in psychology and virtues and the Aristotelian approach to virtue in philosophy. Three key themes emerged from the papers presented at this panel: 1) the nature of the relationship between virtues and character strengths on the VIA model; 2) the extent to which the conceptions of virtues and character strengths are best understood as universal or culturally-embedded; and 3) the reliability of using self-report measurements to measure character strengths. This paper serves to frame papers that resulted from that panel and were incorporated into this special issue of the Journal of Positive Psychology.     

Putting mood in context: Using smartphones to examine how people feel in different locations

Does personality predict how people feel in different types of situations? The present research addressed this question using data from several thousand individuals who used a mood tracking smartphone application for several weeks. Results from our analyses indicated that people’s momentary affect was linked to their location, and provided preliminary evidence that the relationship between state affect and location might be moderated by personality. The results highlight the importance of looking at person-situation relationships at both the trait- and state-levels and also demonstrate how smartphones can be used to collect person and situation information as people go about their everyday lives.     

Some philosophical concerns about how the VIA classifies character traits and the VIA-IS measures them

ABSTRACT

Written from the perspective of a philosopher, this paper raises a number of potential concerns with how the VIA classifies and the VIA-IS measures character traits. With respect to the 24 character strengths, concerns are raised about missing strengths, the lack of vices, conflicting character strengths, the unclear connection between character strengths and virtues, and the misclassification of some character strengths under certain virtues. With respect to the 6 virtues, concerns are raised about conflicting virtues, the absence of practical wisdom, and factor analyses that do not find a 6 factor structure. With respect to the VIA-IS, concerns are raised about its neglect of motivation and about the underlying assumptions it makes about character traits. The paper ends by sketching a significantly improved classification which omits the 6 virtues and introduces additional strengths, vices, and a conflict resolution trait.     

X good things in life: Processing fluency effects in the “Three good things in life” exercise

The present study examined whether difficulty of recollection may influence the effectiveness of the “Three good things in life” exercise that has previously been shown to increase happiness. Participants were randomly assigned to write 1–10 good things that happened to them during the day in the course of two weeks. We measured life satisfaction, positive and negative affect before the exercise and three times after the exercise. We found no effect of the number of good things participants wrote each day. Life satisfaction and positive affect of participants did not increase after the two weeks of the exercise, but we found a reduction in negative affect. We further investigated various aspects of the exercise in exploratory analyses.     

Examining the relationship between hardiness and perceived stress-related growth in a sport injury context

This study examined the relationship between hardiness, coping and perceived stress-related growth (SRG) in a sport injury context. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, a cross-sectional design was employed, whereby 206 previously injured athletes (148 male, 58 female, M_age = 22.23 years) who had recently returned to sport completed three questionnaires: Dispositional Resilience Scale, Stress-Related Growth Scale, and Brief COPE. Pearson product–moment correlations and Preacher's and Hayes's (2008) bootstrapping procedure were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed a significant positive relationship between hardiness and perceived SRG. Two coping strategies were found to mediate this relationship: emotional support and positive reframing. This would suggest that those higher in hardiness may have fostered SRG by mobilising their social support for emotional reasons (e.g., moral support, sympathy or understanding) and having the ability to construe their injury in positive terms; however, more rigorous methodologies are needed to confirm or refute these observations. These findings support some of the central tenets of Joseph and Linley's (2005) organismic valuing theory and provide implications for professional practice. Future researchers should embrace qualitative inquiry to enhance the interpretability and meaningfulness of these findings (e.g., interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis), and use prospective, longitudinal pre-to-post sport injury designs to further substantiate them.     

Happiness in modern society: Why intelligence and ethnic composition matter

Recent developments in evolutionary psychology suggest that living among others of the same ethnicity might make individuals happier and further that such an effect of the ethnic composition on life satisfaction may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that White Americans had significantly greater life satisfaction than all other ethnic groups in the US and this was largely due to the fact that they were the majority ethnic group; minority Americans who lived in counties where they were the numerical majority had just as much life satisfaction as White Americans did. Further, the association between ethnic composition and life satisfaction was significantly stronger among less intelligent individuals. The results suggest two important factors underlying life satisfaction and highlight the utility of integrating happiness research and evolutionary psychology.     

The conscious experience of color constancy and neural responses to subliminal deviations – A behavioral and EEG/ERP oddball study

IntroductionColor constancy, a property of conscious color experience, maintains object color appearance across illuminant changes. We investigated the neural correlates of subliminal vs. conscious stimulus deviations of color constancy manipulations.MethodsBehavioral and Oddball EEG/ERP experiments were conducted (n = 20). Psychophysical illuminant variation discrimination thresholds were first estimated, to establish individual perceptual awareness ranges, allowing for simulation of natural daylight spectral and spatial variations on colored surfaces, at different ambiguity levels.ResultsBehavioral results validated illuminant choice. ERPs showed a significant modulation of posterior P1 component specifically for the subliminal global uniform deviation condition, respecting color constancy. Neural correlates of conscious percepts were identified at posterior N2-P3 latencies, parietal (P3b) and frontal regions.ConclusionsWe identified an early subliminal correlate of low-level illuminant change, which reflects automatic unconscious detection of global color constancy deviations. Its suppression under conscious perception is probably due to top-down suppression according to prediction error models.