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The nonprofit VIA Institute on Character was founded to create a scientifically rigorous classification of character strengths (the VIA Classification) and a way of measuring them (the VIA Survey). 

The Institute is devoted to advancing the scientific understanding about character.

Take VIA Survey of Character

Nearly 1 million people worldwide have taken the VIA-IS, also known as the VIA Survey of Character. All surveys are free and confidential. 

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VIA is a free community for practitioners and researchers who use VIA character strengths in their work. Membership is separate from the registration required to take the VIA Survey.

Christopher Peterson
VIA Science Director


Chris Peterson,  professor at the University of Michigan since 1986, is a member of the Positive Psychology Steering Committee, a consulting editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology and a former Templeton Senior Fellow.  He led the creation of the VIA Classification of Strengths and lead author of Character Strengths and Virtues, A Handbook and Classification. A founding father of  Positive Psychology he is one of the world's 100 most cited psychologists. 

VIA Store: Items Heighten Awareness of Character Strengths


Neal H. Mayerson, Ph.D., Chairman, VIA Institute

As we have worked to put together the VIA Store, some people have wondered why an organization focused on research and practice would sell hard goods.  Our primary reason is to offer goods that help people heighten their daily consciousness about their “signature strengths” – usually defined as a person’s top five strengths in his or her VIA Survey results.

Studies have shown that there are positive benefits when people deliberately think of new ways to use their signature strengths in their lives. One of the greatest challenges in making behavioral changes is keeping our intention top of mind while attending to the many things in our lives that compete for consciousness bandwidth. Constructing our personal environments to include cues about our signature strengths and our intention to express them robustly can help promote positive behavior change. The VIA Store offers products that can serve this cueing function. 

Secondarily, any and all proceeds from the sales of The VIA Store go to support VIA’s non-profit mission work to advance the science of character and to provide practitioners with tools to help clients improve their lives via building upon and building up personal character strengths.  

We hope the products we have selected are useful and we welcome additional product suggestions (e-mail Deb Pinger, our Executive Director: debp@viacharacter.org).

New VIA Library Open!

We are pleased to make our online library open to all. Just click on "Library" in the top-of-page navigation, and you'll find a robust list of books and abstracts of articles on the VIA Classification and Positive Psychology, with video links to come. We invite your comment on each of the entries -- so tell us what you know of these books, articles, papers, etc. If you have a publication, video or audio link you'd like to add, simply e-mail the information to: lindap@viacharacter.org.

VIA Personal Character Profiles Coming Soon!

In early January, VIA will roll out an additional tool for understanding individual character strengths to those who take the VIA Survey.  Called the Personal Character Profile, you will be able to examine your unique constellation of character strengths in a 20-page report that includes raw data scores and multiple graphs showing weights in rank order, weights in virtue categories, placement of signature strengths on Dr. Chris Peterson's factor-analyzed graph (circumplex model), and comparative data. The Personal Character Profiles also provide a review of each Signature Strength, with ways to nurture and enhance that strength.

Personal Character Profiles are accessed using a Profile Code, entered when a respondent takes the VIA Survey. Practitioners will like the fact that the reports are sent via e-mail to the owner of the code.  This means that when clients take the VIA Survey, the practitioner receives the results and then presents the results to the client.  The Personal Character Profiles will be $40 through March 1, and are available to all. You can purchase your code at the VIA Store, which also is coming very soon.

The current results report -- the rank order of character strengths with brief descriptions -- will continue to be available to all, at no charge, a gift of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation.  This information, for those who opt for the Personal Character Profile, is included with the profile.

All proceeds support the work of the nonprofit VIA Institute, including research and training.  Expect to see the profiles by January 7!

CHARACTER STRENGTHS AND VIRTUES: A Handbook and Classification

Christopher Peterson
Martin E. P. Seligman

...Destined to become a classic—both in the social sciences and in the humanities. -George E. Vaillant, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Director of Research for the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital

...One of the most important initiatives in psychology of the past half century. - Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Education and Cognition, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

This work provides a needed psychological foundation for studying some of the attributes that are most important to a world that is foundering on the shoals of wars, terrorism, and atrocities. I recommend the book very highly.- Robert J. Sternberg, IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, Yale University; Director, Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise (PACE Center), Yale University; Past President, American Psychological Association

Not since Skinner have psychologists been so bold as to suggest a science of human character and virtue. ... My hope is that it will transport scientific psychology into fields of discourse that have rarely considered it before.- Claude Steele, Ph.D., Chair and Professor, Psychology Department, Stanford University