VIA Offers Personality Assessment Focusing on Character Strengths
Personality is the sum total of our psychological makeup and how we uniquely express ourselves in the world. It is the pattern of emotional qualities, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and habits that make us who we are. But for many of us it can be difficult to describe our own personality.
A personality test can be a useful tool to help you articulate the characteristics about yourself. You might take a personality test when going through a life transition, such as a career change, marriage, divorce, or retirement to gain self-confidence and greater sense of self. Or maybe you are just interested in learning more about what makes you unique and special. Whatever the reason, personality tests can be a fun way to discover the qualities that make you - you!
However, many of the major personality assessments measure what is going wrong with people, such as psychopathology, illness or serious problems (e.g., MMPI-2; MCMI-3; Rorschach inkblot test). Other personality tests assess neutral characteristics such as extraversion/introversion, feeling/thinking (e.g., Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). And many of the other “fad” tests are not science-based and therefore unreliable. All in all, personality tests that are research validated and measure what is going right with people are hard to come by. Learn more about the similarities and differences between VIA and the Myers-Briggs assessment.
This is where the VIA Survey of Character Strengths comes in to play. The VIA Survey is a psychometrically validated personality test that measures an individual’s character strengths. Character strengths are viewed as our positive personality in that they are our core capacities for thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that can bring benefit to oneself and others. We express our character strengths universally across all domains – work, relationships, school, social, etc. Learn how the VIA character strengths relate to the Big 5 Personality traits, the commonly used broad domains of personality.
The VIA Survey only measures your good character, for instance qualities such as: love, kindness, fairness, zest and hope. Research shows that people who know and utilize their unique strengths have stronger relationships, find more engagement in their work, and lead happier, more fulfilling lives. After taking the VIA Survey to discover your unique strengths, the next step is reflecting on personality strengths development -- how you use your strengths in your daily life.
Print a Copy of the VIA Classification: Your Positive Personality Traits
The VIA Classification is available in many formats. Choose which one best suits your needs from the selection below:
