Character Strengths Interventions: Building on What We Know for Improved Outcomes

Abstract

For this review strengths intervention studies were located using online searches and collegial networks and included if they explicitly sought to teach or use a strengths classification to enhance well-being, and used pre-and post-intervention measures and a comparison group.Eight studies met the criteria and have been summarised by this review. To date, the effect sizes achieved by character strengths interventions have been small to moderate. An understanding of how these interventions work may facilitate development of more effective interventions, while expanding the field of character strengths interventions to include a broader range of activities and approaches may also offer benefits. Research examining individual factors, such as strengths use, psychological need satisfaction, goal-setting and goal-striving provides promising leads to explain how strengths interventions work. However, the effect on intervention efficacy of relational or contextual factors, such as intervention environment or facilitator attitude to strengths, has not yet been explored. Implications for interventions in school settings are considered.

Effects of a Strengths Intervention on General and Work-Related Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

“…A promising strategy to promote the well-being of employees is the development and use of individual strengths at work (Quinlan et al 2012;Peterson et al 2010), because using strengths is, by definition, linked to positive feelings such as excitement and joy. As only few employees report to use their strengths habitually when being at work (Buckingham 2007), enabling strengths use might be a so far overlooked lever to boost employee well-being.…”

“…As only few employees report to use their strengths habitually when being at work (Buckingham 2007), enabling strengths use might be a so far overlooked lever to boost employee well-being. To make use of this lever, organizations can implement so-called strengths interventions, defined as training processes aiming at the identification, development, and use of the participants' strengths (Quinlan et al 2012). Strengths interventions are of particular interest to organizations because they have been found to consistently enhance general well-being (for a review, see : Quinlan et al 2012), and because they are brief and relatively easy to implement.…”

“…Most of the existing studies on strengths interventions used samples of children, adolescents, or students instead of adults (Quinlan et al 2012), and target the use of strengths in daily life, but not particularly in the work context (Meyers et al 2013). Moreover, the existing studies have mainly focused on indicators of general but not work-related well-being as outcome variables, and have not yet explored the mechanisms through which strengths interventions influence well-being, leaving us with limited knowledge of how or why they work (Quinlan et al 2012).…”

Finnish High-Achieving Students’ Perceptions of the Best Practices in Teaching

“…In positive psychology research, the researchers categorize human strengths in many ways. These categorizations differ from each other by their definitions of strengths and terminology (Quinlan, Swain, & Vella-Brodrick, 2012). These viewpoints share the understanding of strength as a positive feature that describes a person at his or her most genuine (Linley, Willars, & Biswas-Diener, 2010;Rath, 2007;Seligman, 2011).…”

“…Human strength research shares an understanding of the beneficial consequences for well-being, happiness, and contentment when utilizing one's personal human strengths. Likewise, researchers connect them with engagement to and achievement of goals as well as with ISSN 1948-5476 2015 efficient and quality action (see Quinlan et al, 2012;Wood, Linley, Maltby, Kashdan, & Hurling, 2011).…”