We investigated the relationship between various character strengths and life satisfaction among 5,299 adults from three Internet samples using the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths. Consistently and robustly associated with life satisfaction were hope, zest, gratitude, love, and curiosity. Only weakly associated with life satisfaction, in contrast, were modesty and the intellectual strengths of appreciation of beauty, creativity, judgment, and love of learning. In general, the relationship between character strengths and life satisfaction was monotonic, indicating that excess on any one character strength does not diminish life satisfaction.

Strengths of character and well-being

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Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles

The Future of Marriage J S Bernard New York: Bantam Books 1972 Rereading Jessie Bernard's The Future of Marriage almost 30 years after its original publication is much like returning for a visit to one's hometown You are now looking at markers from an earlier time with more informed, more experienced eyes Elementary school seems much smaller than you remember it, the parks aren't as beautiful, the houses more plain and crowded together Seeing these landmarks differently points out how much your world view has shifted and expanded More important than realizing how much your perception of things has changed, the trip home reminds you where you came from and what, from that earlier time, you still carry with you You can see which aspects of that past experience are part of who you are, still structuring your identity So, in a professional way, is the return visit to The Future of Marriage for me Thus, I approach the challenge of reviewing the impact of Bernard's book much as I would approach reviewing my hometown, making an effort to offer an "objective" assessment, while recognizing that I am the offspring of that which I am assessing The initial temptation with a book that makes predictions is to look at the accuracy of the predictions to assess the impact of the book How accurate was Bernard in her vision of how marriage would look today? By this standard, Bernard had some hits and some misses For example, she was on target in predicting a decline in the marriage rate, with alternative forms of intimate relationships filling in the gap The move away from nuclear households to "nuclear fusion" and cooperative households that she predicted has not widely manifest itself, however But to focus on the accuracy of predictions misses the point Bernard herself acknowledged that the business of looking into the future is fraught with peril as many unforeseen forces and random events can wreak havoc on well-grounded predictions The appropriate yardstick for measuring the impact of a scholarly book, I believe, is to ask the question, "How is the scholarly discourse different than it might have been without such a book?" How have the questions we asked, the way we ask them, and what we do with the answers been influenced by this book? The most obvious influence of this book was in directing the attention of scholars and society at large to gender differences and inequity in the experience of marriage Although Bernard and others had written for years about the differential mental health advantage of marriage for men over women, it was not until this book that the scholarly case for the potentially debilitating effects of marriage and parenthood for women was so articulately made Not only did Bernard cite the outcome data as many had done for years, she delved into the societal, interactional, and-to some extent-psychological factors contributing to women's plight That is, she moved beyond the traditional focus on gender differences to focus on the underlying dynamics giving rise to the gender differences Evidence of the impact of this book is seen in the way in which social science research began to pay attention to the construction of gender, to move away from the assumption of uniform experience in families (eg, concepts such as family well-being), and to examine in more detail women's experiences in families Such moves were not without controversy and backlash, but this book was a large part of the impetus that gave voice and direction to feminist researchers as they charted new courses of scholarly inquiry Interestingly, not only did Bernard build the case for the different experience of marriage, but she also provided the language for us to talk about it Terms such as "two marriages" (p 3) and 'his' and 'her' marriage" (p 5) have reached the level of common cultural knowledge both within and outside of academic circles …

The Future of Marriage

We took a closer look at the link between character strengths and well-being by following up on suggestions by Snyder (this issue) and Harvey and Pauwels (this issue). We explored the simultaneous association between 24 strengths of character and life satisfaction and found that a number of different strengths independently predicted life satisfaction. Hope was among the important predictors, as Snyder proposed, but it was no more robust a predictor than the character strengths of gratitude, love, and zest. We also found that trauma moderated the association between modesty and well-being, as Harvey and Pauwels hypothesized. With increasing trauma, the correlation between modesty and enthusiasm about life increased in magnitude. These new analyses further our comparative investigation of character strengths and imply that there are different routes to a satisfied life.

Strengths of character and well-being: A closer look at hope and modesty

The chapter examines statistical associations between measures of humility, spiritual transcendence, and forgiveness in a convenience sample of college students in the United States Although there exists a large body of literature about religiousness-spirituality and forgiveness, much less empirical research documents the measurement or functions of dispositional humility - the quality of being more modest, humble, and self-effacing than immodest, arrogant, or conceited Broadly, humility involves an accurate assessment of one's own characteristics, an ability to acknowledge limitations, and a forgetting of the self" Humility also involves relinquishing one's own arrogant or narcissistic tendencies and viewing oneself realistically in relation to others In support of the spirituality-forgiveness hypothesis, spiritual transcendence (ST) correlated positively with attitudes toward forgiveness and likelihood of forgiving The prayer fulfillment and universality facets of ST appeared to be responsible for the association between overall ST and forgiveness Keywords: forgiveness; humility; religiousness-spirituality; spiritual transcendence (ST)

Associations between humility, spiritual transcendence, and forgiveness

Park, Peterson, and Seligman (in press) provide interesting evidence about character strength and satisfaction with life. We were not surprised at some of the main findings, to wit: Zest, curiosity, love, hope, and gratitude were all fairly strongly associated with satisfaction with life. Furthermore, the more intensely these characteristics were endorsed, the more life satisfaction was reported. As the authors suggest, these characteristics seem to be logically connected with satisfaction. For example, love frequently is associated with life satisfaction (Diener & Seligman, 2002), and qualities such as gratitude and hope may connect past and future well in the minds of respondents. What is most remarkable about this evidence is the very meager relationship between modesty and humility and life satisfaction. Looking at the sample, which was found on the Internet and which was made up of a very large number of adults at midlife, it is difficult to understand why so many people at this point in their lives would not endorse modesty and humility as essential to life satisfaction. The VIA definition of modesty and humility (e.g., “not regarding oneself as more special than one is) also strikes us as true to these concepts. In addition, the data show that related concepts such as perspective/wisdom are much more strongly related to life satisfaction. Perhaps the ideas of humility and modesty simply are not well appreciated in our culture? Self–esteem enhancement movements often eschew humility, and there is evidence that elevated self–esteem may be associated with displaced aggression

Modesty, Humility, Character Strength, and Positive Psychology

A selective review of some recent theoretical developments in the field of close relationships is presented. We describe demographic developments reflecting flux in relationships and the family and what may be viewed as a revolution in gender relations and the family over the past three to four decades. Also reviewed are theories on the development, maintenance, and ending of relationships, as well as the “dark side” of close relationships. We conclude that the close-relationships field is likely to continue to develop and prosper as people search for answers to daunting relationship problems.

Recent Developments in Close-Relationships Theory

Contributors. Preface. Part I: Post Traumatic Stress: Contexts & Consequences. Loss of Trust: Correlates of the Comorbidity of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Severe Mental Illness. A Primer of Closed Head Injury Sequelae in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Childhood Sexual Abuse and Revictimization in Adolescence and Adulthood. Comparisons of Narratives of Loss Experiences of World War II and Vietnam Combat Veterans. Lessons in the Psychology of Loss: Accounts of Middle-aged Romaian Women. Part II: Responding to and Coping with Posttraumatic Stress. The Role of Attributions and Perceived Control in Recovery from Rape. Survivor's Needs and Stories After Organizational Disasters: How Organizations Can Facilitate the Coping Process. The Aging of Grief: Parental Grief of Israeli Soldiers. Coping with Losses and Past Trauma in Old Age: The Separation-Individuation Perspective. Holocaust Transmission: Perverse or Life-Affirming. Conclusions & Future Directions.

Brian G. Pauwels

Papers

Modesty, Humility, Character Strength, and Positive Psychology

Recent Developments in Close-Relationships Theory

Post Traumatic Stress Theory : Research and Application