VIA Classification & Inventory: Do you know your Strengths and Virtues?

The "VIA Classification" and "VIA Inventory of Strengths Survey" are regarded as the central tool in the field of Positive Psychology.

"VIA" stands for "Values in Action", the tools were designed by Dr. Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson in 2004 in order to identify an individual’s profile of character strengths by operationalizing their Character Strengths and Virtues Handbook (CSV). The CSV has been considered as the positive counterpart to the DSM, which sceintifically categorizes human strengths and virtues instead of deficits and disorders.

Specifically, the VIA Classification and Inventory consists of 6 virtues and 24 character strengthes resulted from a multi-year research project:

1. Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective
2. Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, zest
3. Love and Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control
6. Spirituality and Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

The VIA Inventory is composed of a 240 item measure of these 24 character strengths (10 items per strength) on a 5-point Likert scale. A higher score on a scale indicates that the participant more strongly identifies with that scale's associated strength. The results rank order the participant’s strengths from 1-24, with the top 5 strengths considered “signature strengths”.

According to the "VIA Institute on Character" (http://www.viacharacter.org/www/) set up later by Dr. Seligman and Dr. Neal H. Mayerson, these character traits are expressed universally by people across all areas in their lives in different cultures.The VIA Inventory has been translated into more than 17 languages and taken more than 1.3 million times by people worldwide.

In order to help people to identify their own positive strengths and learn how to capitalize on them for a more fulfilling life, the institute make the VIA Intentory available for free:

If you are interested to know more about your strengths and virtues, click here: https://www.viame.org/survey/Account/Register