Psychotherapy for Character Strength Development

Abstract

Many dislike psychology and psychologists due to their tendency to identify what is wrong with people. Positive psychology has made an innovative impact on this reality by making a radical 'turning point' by focusing on what is best in people along with human issues. The aim of positive psychology is to build people, community, nation and organisation by fostering the development of strengths and virtues at large. The main stream of positive psychology is involved in the study of three domains like, positive character strengths, positive subjective experiences, and positive institutions (Seligman & Peterson, 2004).Character strengthsCharacter strengths, the corner stone of positive psychology, are the psychological ingredients that define virtues (Seligman & Peterson, 2004). Lopez (2008 ) defines character strength as the capacity for feeling, thinking, and behaving as morally valued. There are 24 character strengths which can be categorized under six virtues: wisdom and knowledge (creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, perspective) courage (bravery, perseverance, honesty, zest), humanity (love, kindness, social intelligence), justice (team work, fairness, leadership), temperance (forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation) and transcendence (appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humour, spirituality) (Seligman & Peterson, 2004). They are trait-like qualities. Peterson and Seligman differentiate character strengths from talents and abilities. However, literature on positive psychology has not given a clear distinction between the terms character strengths, signature strengths and virtues (Wong, 2006).Integral approach to character strength developmentThe integral approach, which has a sound anthropological horizon, situates human development in the light of the 'mystery' of the human person. Although the word 'mystery' denotes vague and obscure aspects of life, Imoda (1998) has described it in a positive sense, namely, that human life cannot be grasped in its full meaning because it transcends the immediate capacity of senses and intellect. Kiely (1987) unfolded this concept of 'mystery' by describing human mystery as being grounded in the existential fact that the person may live simultaneously in two different 'worlds', a 'world of desire' and a 'world of limits'. World of desires include anything which the person desires to have, and there are no necessary limits in desires. On the contrary, world of limits entails the things which the person cannot change, and so, it needs to be accepted. Since two worlds have contrasting characteristics, they follow different and divergent lines of development. The very notion of limit and desire imply an inherent tension, and the way each individual deals with this tension has far-reaching consequences for character strength development (Kiely, 1987; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Costello, 2002). In this context, 'mystery' is the fundamental anthropological reality of the person, understood as tension between finite and infinite (Imoda, 1998; Sebastian, 2014). The way individual deals with these unavoidable tensions determine the persons' strength development. Aveline (2001) adds that people leam adaptive patterns in order to cope with these daily tensions which can become either maladaptive or adaptive as they are repeated in new contexts. For some, the daily events become opportunities for confronting the mystery of self and for others the same events are perceived as a threat. A great deal of character strength development depends on whether this tension is resolved and on how this tension is resolved (Tharayil, 2012). Here the character strength development takes place by transcending life circumstances. It is a moment to find meaning and purpose of that event in their lives, which goes beyond here and now, and hence a movement toward adaptation. Smith (2006) repeatedly depicts that strength development occurs as the end product of a dialectical process involving a person's struggle with adversity. …