Lived Experience Forum

[chookmojo]

There's a lot of statistical stuff in the article which frankly flew right over my head, however there are a couple of worthwhile Summary points which I have chopped up and put in here:

The main tenet of the field of positive psychology is that the path to well-being lies in nurturing your highest strengths. But one big question remains: Which character strengths are most predictive of well-being? 

...

Out of all 24 character strengths, the only significant independent positive predictors of well-being were gratitude and love of learning.** Note that love, honesty, and humor were very close to being statistically significant independent positive predictors of well-being.

...

The single best predictor of well-being was gratitude.

So there you have it. Not all character strengths seem to be equally predictive of well-being. Not to say that you should rule any of them out, of course. Humility and self-restraint are considered very valuable character strengths to have by most people, and are MUCH needed in our society and around the world. But they don't appear to be a very good predictor of well-being. Remember, well-being isn't everything there is to life. There are other human goods.

Nevertheless, if you do seek high well-being, your best bets are gratitude and love of learning.

.....

Full article here

[Mosaic]

Hi @chookmojo thank you for sharing, that is a fascinating read... I love this area of research 🙂

[HappyOne]

Loving the info, please keep it coming.

[CherryBomb]

Great article @chookmojo. It's great to focus on strenghts rather than illness. I think it's important to remind ourselves our our postivie qualities and areas that we can improve.

@suzanne is pretty interested in positive psychology. I wonder if she has any thoughts on this?

[Appleblossom]

Thanks for article.. it was interesting

But in the intersts of "balance" can I have a grump too .. I can see why kindness is not a predictor as it too often leads to others taking advantage .. and re gratitude .. I have been accused of being too nice .. and sometimes think it is just a new form of preaching .. be grateful.

Sample size was a bit small to get real results for such sophisticated traits.

Still, I agree it is good to focus on strengths

[suzanne]

Thanks for much @chookmojo for posting this research.  It's always good to be reminded of the things within our control that can move us towards wellness.  We can get a little fixated and frustrated at times on the stuff beyond our control.

I take @Appleblossom's point though.  We need to bring balance to all these strategies.  Could 'extreme gratitude' have any negative consequences?  Maybe reduce our drive to change what needs to be changed?  I don't know the answer as I've never met anyone that grateful or managed it myself

It's like mindfulness.  IMO spending the majority of our time thinking about the present supports wellness.  But there is a time and a place for thinking about the future (planning holidays, careers, what's for lunch) and the past (sharing and enjoying memories, flipping through photo albums). 

So...balance.  In all things.  It's not a particulary exciting idea but I think it's important. 

[chookmojo]

What I liked about it is that Gratitude, while being a character strength that varies in expresion from person to person, is something that you can very easily learn how to do. It has to be one of the easiest character strengths to leverage, and (apparently) gives you quite a bit of bang for your buck in the well being department.

For a lot of the other character strengths, if I go through the list and identify those that are lower for me, it is very hard for me to see how I would start to build them up. Whereas Gratitude is a snap.

Though it might just be that as I already have a decent level of grattitude I find that easier to see.... 

Not that I especially want to build up any of the areas - the whole point of classifications like this is to identify your stengths, not to suggest that you should be strong in every area, or to direct your focus to your 'weaker strengths'...

[Appleblossom]

I just had to laugh at your gratitude is great "bang for your buck'.  Bloody economic rationalists 

tee hee hee