Gender Differences in Character Strengths and Virtues of Teachers in Higher Education

Abstract

Higher education plays particularly an important role by facilitating social, economical, technological and human resource development. Higher education is the master key that opens many doors and ensures the all round development of a person. It is an important and a specialized form of human capital, contribution of which to economic growth is very significant. It is rightly regarded as the engine of development in the new world economy (Ullah et al., 2012). The contribution of the higher education system for the development of knowledge and skills, generation of wealth, growth of employment, improvement in productivity and enhancement of global competitive capabilities are well recognized (Chauhan, 2010). It has been evidenced that the teachers with the positive core qualities can be academically more motivated, well rounded and successful both in and outside the classroom. Moreover, there is a long-standing and widely accepted proposition that happiness represents the ultimate goal in life and the truest measure of wellbeing (Layard et al., 2013).Noticeably, positive psychology, a new branch of psychology that seeks to understand scientifically what makes humans perform exceptionally well, have greater wellbeing and happiness consistently through life and be more resilient to life's difficulties, aims at making a positive difference in the lives of people and motivates to thrive and perform at optimal levels. The goals of positive psychology mirror the goals of quality education. In this regard, Martin Seligman, founder of the field ofpositive psychology is appreciated to begin the world's pioneering school to bolster good teaching practices as positive education program. The various skills that increase resilience, positive emotion, engagement and meaning can be taught to school children (Seligman et al., 2009). This new science has now discovered the concept of positive education which comprises of the key elements viz., character strengths and virtues, resilience, happiness, interpersonal relationships, etc. that produce consistent and long term wellbeing and success.Everyone has unique abilities and capacities that help to flourish and perform at best (Wood, Linley, Maltby, Kashdan & Hurling, 2011). These strengths can be understood from the perspective of character and virtues. According to Linley and Harrington (2006), strengths are ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that come naturally and easily to a person and that enable high functioning and performance. While strengths are similar to talents, there are important differences. Strengths are valued for moral and intrinsic reasons whereas talents are valued for their tangible outcomes. In addition to being valuable and right, strengths are proposed to have important benefits for wellbeing and to contribute to success in important life domains (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).Character strengths become self-consciously salient and then are incorporated into a habitual style (Dahlsgaard, Peterson & Seligman, 2005). With regards to virtues, McCullough and Snyder (2000) defined them as a psychological process that constantly enables a person to think and act so as to benefit him or her and society. They referred to character as possessing several of the virtues, which then is a higher order construct. Thus, character is a term referring to the aggregate of strengths that form an individual's nature. Character strengths are defined as the subset ofpersonality traits, on which one can place moral value (Peterson & Park, 2009) and are psychological processes or mechanisms that constitute positive traits reflected in thoughts, feelings andbehaviors.Objective of the studyTo study the gender differences in the character strengths and virtues of teachers.InstrumentsValues in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS): The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) is a psychological assessment measure designed to identify an individual's profile of character strengths. …