The Five Key Strengths

By Ben Dean, Ph.D.

Not All Strengths Are Equal:  The "Key Five"

Late in 2002 I was able to get a sneak preview of my entire ranked list of VIA strengths – all 24.  As I looked over the list, my eyes kept coming back to Strength 23 on my list: Gratitude.  It bothered me that Gratitude, in particular, was at the bottom of my list.  I wanted to become more grateful.  It just seemed important.

It turns out that my gut instinct about gratitude being important was right.  Here’s the background story:

Positive psychology researcher Dr. Nansook Park and her colleagues Dr. Christopher Peterson and Dr. Martin Seligman have been studying each of the 24 character strengths, in depth, for the past several years.  They recently asked the question, “Are all 24 strengths equally important to life satisfaction?”  The answer is no.

A study with more than 4000 participants revealed that five key strengths--gratitude, optimism, zest, curiosity, and the ability to love and be loved--are more closely and consistently related to life satisfaction than the other strengths.  When I refer to life satisfaction, I am referring to the way a person appraises his or her life as a whole.  People who are highly satisfied with their lives are less likely to have psychological or social problems, less likely to get sick or be stressed out, and more likely to do well at work.  (For more detailed information on the correlates of life satisfaction, see the references at the end of this newsletter.)

This research by Park, Peterson, and Seligman is an important first step.  More studies are needed before we can say that these five key strengths cause life satisfaction.  But the fact that they are correlated with life satisfaction is enough to warrant giving them special attention.

Changing The Five Key Strengths

In my opinion, the most compelling reason to give special attention to these five key strengths is that each strength on the list is, by definition, mutable.  We can all become more grateful, optimistic, zestful, curious, and loving if we are willing to make a concerted effort to do so.

To illustrate how this change can happen on a personal level, let me walk you through the steps I took to become more grateful:

• First, I took the short Gratitude Questionnaire found on the Authentic Happiness site. I scored a 17 out of a possible 42.  According to the survey, 98 percent of the population was more grateful than I was at the time!  Taking this test reinforced my decision to build this strength.
• To cultivate an attitude of gratitude (please ignore the rhyme), I selected a gratitude exercise recommended by Marty in Authentic Happiness:  the “Blessings” exercise.  The instructions for this exercise were to write down three good things that happened every day along with an explanation for why these things happened.
• My experience with this exercise was that it was easy at first.  Who can’t think of three things to be grateful for?  But then it got harder.  I ran out of the obvious (e.g., my wife and children, my friends, good health).  This forced me to become aware of the “smaller” things to be thankful for each day: hot showers in the morning, a flexible job, electric lights for reading late at night, a sunny day in the middle of winter.  I also became more aware of some of the larger blessings it is so easy for me to overlook, for example, the English language, itself.
• I have now been doing this exercise almost every night for the last 15 months.  For good measure, I have always written down five blessings, not three.  Recently I took the Gratitude Questionnaire again and I scored 40 out of a possible 42.  According to this questionnaire I am now more grateful than 80 percent of the population.  And I can honestly tell you that I feel like a more grateful person.  Noticing and appreciating the blessings in my life has become almost habitual for me, and the positive effects of this new habit are apparent in my mood, my relationships, and my perspective on my life.