The Development of a Short Measure of Character Strength

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Abstract
A total of 366 participants from Great Britain and the United States completed a new, short questionnaire to measure respondents’ self-assessed character strengths based on the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA) ( Peterson & Seligman, 2004 ). They also completed a core self-evaluation ( Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thorensen, 2003 ) and a Big Five personality trait ( McManus & Furnham, 2006 ) measure. The study investigated the factor structure of character strengths measure as well as demographic (particularly sex), ideological, personality, and core self-evaluation correlates of the six virtues that represent the “higher-order” classification of the strengths. Exploratory factor analysis provided evidence for the six virtues, though somewhat different from the theoretical formulation. Regressions looking at demographic (sex, age, education), ideological (religion, politics), and personality (Big Five plus core self-evaluations) determinant of these strengths (using factor scores from the factor analysis) showed personality factors (particularly extraversion) were always most powerful predictors of the self-rated strength and virtues. Limitations of the scale are discussed.

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