From strengths use to work performance: The role of harmonious passion,subjective vitality,and concentration

Research has shown that strengths use and development can foster individual performance and well-being at work. However, to date little is known about the underlying psychological processes that might be operating in this relation. The purpose of this study was first to confirm the strengths use to work performance association and, second, to assess theoretical models of strengths use by testing a path model from strengths use to work performance, through harmonious passion, subjective vitality, and concentration. This study was conducted on a sample of 404 French-speaking Canadian workers and structural equation modeling analyses were performed in order to test the proposed model. Results show an association between strengths use and work performance. Further, this relation is completely mediated by the proposed variables. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.     

Strengths use and work engagement: a weekly diary study

The present study among 65 civil engineers investigates the impact of organizational support for strengths use on weekly work engagement and proactive behaviour. Positive psychology postulates that strengths use makes people feel authentic and efficacious. We argue that employees use these positive psychological states as resources that fuel work engagement and proactive work behaviour. Participants completed a general questionnaire regarding strengths use support, and a weekly quantitative diary questionnaire regarding their strengths use, self-efficacy, work engagement, and proactive behaviour over a period of five consecutive workweeks. In line with the hypotheses, the results of multilevel structural equation analyses showed that organizational strengths use support was positively related to weekly strengths use. Furthermore, the results indicated that weekly strengths use was positively related to weekly work engagement and proactive behaviour, through weekly self-efficacy (sequential mediation). Although strengths use support contributed indirectly to work engagement (mediated by strengths use and self-efficacy), there was no significant indirect relationship with proactive behaviour. Our study indicates that strengths use is associated with employees’ levels of self-efficacy, work engagement, and proactive behaviour and that organizations can help employees to use their strengths more often by giving them the opportunity to do what they are good at.     

Strengths use and deficit improvement: The relationship with engagement and fit with study course amongst first-year students

This study sought to test a model of students’ proactive behaviour to use their strengths and improve their deficits and how this relates with their self-reported perceptions of their fit with a study course and engagement. Participants were 692 first-year students from a higher education institution in South Africa (females=60.3%; blacks=71.3%; mean age=19.71; SD=1.93). They completed measures of strengths use, deficit improvement, perceptions of fit with a study course and engagement. Structural equation modelling was utilised to examine the relationship between students’ strengths use and deficit improvement, perceptions of fit with a study course and student engagement. In addition, the bootstrapping method was used to identify possible mediating effects of fit with a study course. The results indicated that only deficit improvement showed a significant relationship with engagement. Perceptions of fit with a study course mediated the relationship between students’ strengths use and deficit improvement.     

Efficient versus flexible mentalizing in complex social settings: Exploring signature limits

Wu, Sheppard, and Mitchell (Br. J. Psychol., 2016; 107, 1–22) investigate in a fascinating study the fact that adults can detect empathic traits in others after only briefly watching or listening to a person. In this commentary, we highlight how the processes of an efficient, implicit, but inflexible mentalizing system are likely to operate in such situations. Further, we specify how testing signature limits over time‐, attribute‐, and protagonist‐restrictions can help distinguish whether an efficient‐implicit or flexible‐explicit mentalizing system is of relevance when processing complex social settings.     

A Study of the Conceptual Structure of Growth Mindsets and Their Impact on Self-Improvement Motivation

This study examined the conceptual structure and motivational effects of growth mindsets based on the perspective of character strengths. An internet survey was conducted with 1,000 workers (500 males and 500 females; age range 20–59 years, M = 40.1 years, SD = 10.7 years). Participants were presented with 25 strengths (i.e., intelligence and 24 character strengths) and were asked to rate their perceived competence, growth mindset, and improvement intention for each strength. The exploratory factor analyses on perceived competence, growth mindset, and improvement intention identified five common factors: wisdom, willpower, temperance, transcendence, and groupness. Moreover, regression analyses indicated that a growth mindset was more strongly related to improvement intention than perceived competence. Furthermore, regression analyses found domain-specific effects of growth mindsets on improvement intention. Thus, the intention to improve a particular strength was more closely related to that particular growth mindset than to other growth mindsets. The theoretical and educational implications are aired in the discussion section.     

Indications of Resilience Factors in Families Who have Lost a Home in a Shack Fire

The aim of this study was to explore the presence of resilience factors in families living in an informal settlement on the outskirts of a rural town that have lost their homes in a shack fire. A mixed methods research design was utilised. Qualitative data were obtained through responses to an open‐ended question, and quantitative data were obtained through the completion of questionnaires by an adult representative of each of the 38 African families that were identified through convenience sampling. To identify resilience factors, content analyses (on the qualitative data) were performed and Spearman correlations (for the quantitative data) were calculated. The results show that supportive communication, a sense of being in control and having internal strengths and dependability, while working together as a family, are vital to the resilience of the families that took part in this study. Furthermore, material support from the municipality and extended family, shelter provided by members of the extended family, and financial support from the extended family were also indicated as essential in overcoming the crisis and being resilient. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

International Students' Personal and Multicultural Strengths: Reducing Acculturative Stress and Promoting Adjustment

International students are often encouraged to cope with acculturative stress by relying on personal and multicultural strengths. The authors explored this assumption by testing personal growth initiative, hardiness, and universal‐diverse orientation as predictors of international students’ acculturative stress and adjustment. Data from 336 international students supported a partially mediated model, such that greater levels of personal and multicultural strengths predicted less acculturative problems, thus leading to better adjustment.     

Using Rasch modelling to examine the international personality item pool (IPIP) values in action (VIA) measure of character strengths

This paper investigates the psychometric properties of the values in action (VIA) character strengths (Peterson and Seligman, 2004 Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]). A sample of 904 South African undergraduate students (female=77%, male=23%, black=70%, mean age=21.07 years, SD age=2.73 years) was assessed using a 380-item questionnaire that included the items from the international personality item pool (IPIP) values in action (VIA) measure of 24 character strengths as well as additional items based on the underlying theory of the particular constructs. Responses were analysed with the Rasch rating scale model. Reliability coefficients were computed for the retained scale items. The majority (21) of the scales demonstrated satisfactory Rasch model fit and good reliability of scores. The finding that a large proportion of strengths exhibited differential item functioning for at least one of (1) gender, (2) ethnicity and (3) home language group, challenges the assumption that character strengths are necessarily accultural, indicating qualitative distinctions in construct conceptualisations and measurement as a function of emic factors.     

Where the Rainbow Speaks and Catches the Sun

Abstract

Living with a neurobiological brain disorder, commonly known as a mental illness, requires a lifetime of diligent work toward recovery and wellness. This paper outlines the story of one occupational therapist's journey with her own mental illness. She prefers to call her own road of “recovery” one of “discovery,” as it has led her to discover true talents and gifts (strengths) even amongst encounters with old models that emphasize weaknesses and disability over abilities and capabilities. The following journey unfolds as advances in research, changes in services, increased focus on consumer as leader and increased tools and resources available lead the way toward a more positive ability to live a purposeful life, engaging in meaningful activities in spite of an illness. This paper gives a personal account as a tool to be used by other therapists as they travel along their own treatment journeyswhether with, or as consumers, of mental health services.     

Strengthening the Strengths Perspective

Abstract

This article revisits the strengths perspective as conceptualized in social work practice. Although we find this perspective has value and utility for practitioners, we identify areas where the strengths perspective could be enhanced and augmented by integrating the contemporary relational approach exemplified by Paul Wachtel's cyclical psychodynamics. Specifically, we explore his concepts of therapeutic communication and use of language, including interventions that affirm client strengths such as reframing, searching for variations and exceptions, and reconceptualizing how transference impacts the therapeutic action. We illustrate our view with a case vignette, advocating that Wachtel's integrative approach provides a new context for psychodynamics in current social work practice.