Abstract
A model on the role of character strengths in individual, collective, and species success is proffered. It is derived from viewing character strengths from a species perspective as opposed to one of individual differences/personality psychology. The history of the VIA initiative on character science is overviewed, and results to date are summarized in terms of promoting well-being, helping to accomplish aspirational intentions, and allowing the greater good of the collective to grow. “The character strengths response” is described as the response capacities that character strengths may enable for helping us fulfill the human promise of surviving, thriving, and successfully creating a next-generation so that individuals and the collective flourish while also living in harmonious balance with other species. An argument is presented that there is an urgent need for advancing population-wide psychological maturity to be better prepared to navigate the difficult decisions that accompany growing technological powers, and that the character strengths response warrants special attention of research funding to accomplish this imperative.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
A model on the role of character strengths in individual, collective, and species success is proffered. It is derived from viewing character strengths from a species perspective as opposed to one of individual differences/personality psychology
An argument is presented that there is an urgent need for advancing population-wide psychological maturity to be better prepared to navigate the difficult decisions that accompany growing technological powers, and that the character strengths response warrants special attention of research funding to accomplish this imperative
Summary
Let’s assume that humans, like other life forms, are endowed with and develop capacities to perpetuate the species. Get set in motion reflexively, but, when threat is less present, and positive emotions have more breathing room to emerge, they produce a broadening of attention allowing new learning and building of capacities for future surviving and thriving This theory has garnered popularity as it is a useful way of thinking about the roles of positive emotions, but more generally the processes underlying positive psychological growth. Examining character strengths from the perspective of species success points to how, in addition to helping us be resilient, character strengths may play a role in helping us modulate overreaction of our fight-or-flight response, exemplified by levels of aggression or avoidance out of proportion to the actual threat at hand or misapplied to innocent targets This fight-or-flight reflex has physiological, behavioral, and emotional components, which activate our motivation and capacity to effectively fight or flee (Russel and Lightman, 2019). Future research and theory development into the role of the character strengths response in modulating our survival instincts is needed to determine the conditions under which, and the degree to which this modulation can occur
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