Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS)

Abstract

The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005a ) is an English-language self-report questionnaire that measures 24 widely-valued character strengths. The present paper describes the creation and adaptation of the German version of the VIA-IS and its peer-rating form using a sample of 1,674 adults. The 24 subscales had high reliability (median α = .77; median corrected item-total correlations = .45) and high stability across 9 months (median test-retest correlation = .73). The VIA-IS peer form also had high reliability (median α = .81). Self- and peer-ratings of strengths converged as expected (median correlation = .40), and on average ordered the strengths in the same way, correlating .88 across the 24 strengths. There were low to modest correlations of the VIA subscales with demographic variables. Neither the VIA-IS nor the VIA-IS Peer was strongly influenced by social desirability. Correlations with three different measures of subjective well-being replicated findings from earlier studies of the original English VIA-IS and supported the validity of the scale. Furthermore, relations to self-reported behavior and contentment with various aspects of life were modest but congruent with the meaning of the scales (e.g., higher endorsement of religion among spiritual participants, less cigarette smoking among participants with higher self-regulation). Overall, the German VIA-IS and VIA-IS Peer demonstrated good psychometric properties and promising validity evidence. These scales can be recommended for the assessment of strengths of character in the German-speaking world.

The Application of Signature Character Strengths and Positive Experiences at Work

“…The responses are averaged across the 10 items per character strength. The German version of the VIA-IS (Ruch et al 2010) showed high reliability (median a = 0.77) and high stability over 9 months (median test-retest correlation = 0.73). Selfand peer-rating forms correlated in the expected range (median correlation = 0.40).…”

Brief Report: Character Strengths in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder Without Intellectual Impairment

“…In this study, the German version of the VIA-IS was used (Ruch et al, 2010). It demonstrated to be reliable and valid: internal consistencies of the scales ranged from Cronbach's α =.71 to .90 (Ruch et al, 2010).…”

“…The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS, Peterson & Seligman, 2004) is a selfreport questionnaire assessing 24 character strengths, which can be assigned to five factors (emotional, interpersonal, intellectual and theological strengths, as well as strengths of restraint) (Ruch et al, 2010). For the VIA-IS character strengths and descriptions, see Table 2.…”

“…With this individual strength-based approach, the focus is on those strengths, which the individual possesses rather than on differences from others. In particular, the five top-ranked strengths in one´s strength ranking, also referred to as signature strengths, have received growing research attention, as they are considered to be the most salient to a person (Peterson & Seligman, 2004;Ruch et al, 2010).…”

“…For future studies we recommend to also use a peerrating form for the character strengths questionnaire (Ruch et al, 2010). The size of our research sample was relatively small, which limits the generalization of the findings.…”