Psychometric Data

• All scales have satisfactory alphas (>.70).
• Scores are skewed to the right but still show variation.
• One may not want to make much of these findings, but the highest mean scores are consistently found for the humanity strengths of kindness and love, whereas the lowest are found for the temperance strengths of forgiveness, prudence, humility and self-regulation.
• Test-retest correlations for all scales over a 4-month period are substantial (>.70) and in almost all cases approach their internal consistencies.
• Demographic correlations are modest but sensible.  For example, women score higher than men on all of the humanity strengths.  Younger adults score higher than older adults on the score for playfulness.  Married individuals are more forgiving than those who are divorced.
• Self-nominations of strengths correlate substantially (rs = .5) with the matching scale scores for all 24 strengths.
• Marlow-Crowne social desirability scores do not significantly correlate with scale scores, with the exception of prudence (r=.44) and spirituality (r=.30).
• In a series of three large-sample studies (ns > 600), we explored correlations between the scales and rewarding aspects of work, love and play.  The correlates we found were modest but congruent with the meanings of the strengths.  For example, individuals scoring high on the strength of kindness particularly enjoyed jobs in which they can mentor others, those high in curiosity preferred sexually experienced romantic partners, those high on love of learning appreciated gardening, and so on.

For more, please see:

Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). The Values in Action Inventory of Character Strengths for Youth. In K. A. Moore & L. H. Lippman (Eds.), What do children need to flourish? Conceptualizing and measuring indicators of positive development (pp. 13-23). New York: Springer.

Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2006). Methodological issues in positive psychology and the assessment of character strengths. In A. D. Ong & M. van Dulmen (Eds.), Handbook of methods in positive psychology (pp. 292-305. New York: Oxford University Press.

Park, N., & Peterson, C. (in press). Assessing strengths of character among adolescents: The Values in Action Inventory for Youth (VIA-Youth). Journal of Adolescence.

Park, N., & Peterson, C. (in press). Character strengths and happiness among young children: Content analysis of parental descriptions. Journal of Happiness Studies

Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Strengths of character and well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 603-619.

Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2006). Character strengths in fifty-four nations and the fifty US states. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 118-129.

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2003). Character strengths before and after September 11. Psychological Science, 14, 381-384.

Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Assessment of character strengths. In G. P. Koocher, J. C. Norcross, & S. S. Hill, III (Eds.), Psychologists’ desk reference (2nd ed., pp. 93-98). New York: Oxford University Press.

Peterson, C., Park., N., & Seligman (2006). Greater strengths of character and recovery from illness. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 17-26.