4.2 Activities: Developing Character Strengths and VIA Conversation

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From the course by University of Pennsylvania

Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills

764 ratings

University of Pennsylvania

Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills

764 ratings

Course 4 of 5 in the Specialization Foundations of Positive Psychology

Learn how to incorporate resilience interventions into your personal and professional life with Dr. Karen Reivich. In this course, you are exposed to the foundational research in resilience, including protective factors such as mental agility and optimism. Several types of resilience interventions are explored including cognitive strategies; strategies to manage anxiety and increase positive emotions such as gratitude; and a critical relationship enhancement skill. Throughout the course, you will hear examples of individuals using resilience skills in their personal and professional lives. Suggested prerequisites: Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science, Positive Psychology: Applications and Interventions and Positive Psychology: Character, Grit & Research Methods.

From the lesson

Leveraging Character Strengths and Strengthening Relationships

In this module, you will identify your own character strengths using a well-validated questionnaire. Next, you will describe how to use your character strengths in stressful situations to increase resilience by creating a buffer of positive emotion. Additionally, you will learn the research on active constructive responding, and identify their predominant responding style with important people in their lives. Finally, you will hear examples of inculcating resilience into organizations, and plan how to incorporate resilience strategies into your personal and professional lives.

4.1 Background and Definition of Signature Strengths15:21

4.2 Activities: Developing Character Strengths and VIA Conversation4:58

4.3 Using Character Strengths to Navigate an Upcoming Challenge16:16

4.4 Shadow Side of Character Strengths10:20

Meet the Instructors

Karen Reivich, Ph.D.
Director of Resilience Training Services
Positive Psychology Center

[MUSIC]

So the survey has been developed to help us to identify our dominant character

strengths, our signature character strengths.

I also really appreciate it as a way to reflect on what

we value and whether those values are showing up in our actions.

So, for me this became really clear the first time I took the survey.

I glanced at my survey profile and at the top I had bravery and

authenticity and humor and playfulness, some others.

And then like you, I sort of glanced to the bottom of the list.

And there number 24, was the appreciation of beauty and excellence.

And I remember thinking, hey something is wrong with this survey.

It doesn't work.

Because I so deeply value beauty and excellence.

That means so much to me.

And I remember saying to Guy my husband, gosh, this is a shame.

Something seems to be wrong with Chris's survey because you know me.

You know how much I value beauty and excellence but

this is saying it's, 24 out of 24 in terms of my character strengths.

And the Guy looked at me and he said, Grand Canyon.

And I you know I wasn't sure why he was saying that.

And he said, tell the story of when you went to the Grand Canyon.

And initially I thought, this is great, he knows me so well.

That's an example,

you don't go to the Grand Canyon if you don't value beauty and excellence.

But I started telling the story and

I remember saying, we drove cross country, we got out of the car.

I remember walking up to that precipice and

looking down and seeing all the like reds and oranges and

just being overwhelmed by the beauty of that site.

And so I looked at Guy and said, see there is something wrong here.

How can this be 24?

Guy said, hang on a second.

What did you do?

What did you say next?

I said, I don't remember.

He said, Karen, what you did, and said next, you did.

You looked at the Grand Canyon.

Absolutely, and you felt emotion, but

the very next thing out of your mouth was hey, let's go grab some lunch.

And Guy's point in that story, and reminding me of that, was that,

sure, while I value beauty and

excellence, I was not living that value.

That value wasn't showing up in my actions.

Somebody for whom the appreciation of beauty and

excellence was a dominant strength.

That person would probably bring a picnic and

spend at least an hour seeing the sights of the Grand Canyon.

But for me the Grand Canyon almost became another thing on my to do list.

So for me, there are other parts of my personality

that were interfering with my ability to translate that deep value into action.

I have a sense of time urgency.

For me, life is all about, well what's the next thing to achieve?

It's all about time, a to do list.

So as soon as I saw the Grand Canyon, I checked it off my list and

was on to the burger.

And that was a real important wake up call for me.

That if I wanted to live

the character strength of appreciating beauty and excellence.

I needed to slow down and I needed to make more effort

in taking what I value and bringing it to my everyday actions.

So, you've heard me talk about signature character strengths and what that means.

But I want you to really kind of slow down here.

This is such a rich discussion.

That I want you to have an opportunity to really reflect on

your own character strengths.

Which are dominant in you, which are less dominant,

what did you learn by taking this values and actions survey?

Maybe some of you like me, identified

that there is something that you value that is not showing up in your actions.

How are you going to build on that if you want to?

There's so many different pieces to this.

What we'd like you to do is to reflect on what you've learned and

discuss with each other some of the questions that we've posed to

you about signature character strengths.

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