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Room
Seezimmer 2
Friday, September 14  »  13:00 - 14:15
Symposium 20
Positive Psychology: Traits and instruments
Host
Willibald Ruch (University of Zurich)
Chair
Willibald Ruch (University of Zurich)
Discussant
Jérôme Rossier (University of Lausanne)
Positive psychology deals with positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. This symposium deals with the definition and measurement of the various traits that enable human flourishing and well-being. Peterson and Seligman (2004) developed a strengths-based approach to character comprising 24 character strengths and 6 universal virtues. The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; Peterson, & Seligman, 2003) is an instrument for the subjective assessment of character strengths. It was translated and adapted for use with German speaking individuals and so far more than 12 000 filled in the paper pencil form or participated in Internet studies (http://charakterstaerken.org). Information on the psychometric properties of the German VIA-IS and results on its validity will be presented. Seligman (2002) distinguished three different orientations to happiness (life of pleasure, engagement, and meaning). Peterson, Park and Seligman (2005) designed the Orientations to Happiness (OTH) scale, which was adapted for use with German speaking participants. Data on the relation among personality, subjective well-being and the three ways of being happy will be presented. Additionally, measures for curiosity, gratitude, grit, inspiration, personal growth, mindful awareness, and subjective happiness will be presented. Finally, the question will be addressed whether or not those concepts tap entirely new domains of personality.
Speakers
Ursula Beermann
Who are the happy people? - Orientations to happiness, life satisfaction and Eysencks PEN-Modell
Authors
Ursula Beermann (University of Zurich)
Lionel Kuster (University of Zurich)
Maria Schmid (University of Zurich)
Mira Stüssi (University of Zurich)
Willibald Ruch (University of Zurich)
Recently, Seligman (2002) has distinguished three paths to happiness: the life of pleasure, the life of engagement, and the life of meaning. Previous investigations revealed that all three paths were connected to life satisfaction (but to different degrees). Do these paths really tap into a new domain of individual differences or can traditional traits like extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism explain life satisfaction as well? 127 psychology students filled in the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQ-R, Eysenck, Eysenck & Barrett, 1985), the Orientations to Happiness Scale (OTH, Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWL, Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Results showed that the life of pleasure and, even more so, the life of engagement significantly predict life satisfaction. All three PEN-factors correlate significantly with life satisfaction, with neuroticism yielding the highest (negative) correlation. Stepwise regression analysis reveals that the PEN factors explain 35% of the variance of life satisfaction, with the OTH not explaining any further additional variance. However, the two PEN factors neuroticism and psychoticism add explained variance in life satisfaction to the three ways of life. As these results were found with a student population, older populations need to be investigated to see whether or not the results are generizable.
Claudia Harzer
Three Orientations to Happiness – The German adaptation of the OTH (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005)
Authors
Claudia Harzer (University of Zurich)
Willibald Ruch (University of Zurich)
René Proyer (University of Zurich)
Christopher Peterson (University of Michigan)
Peterson, Park and Seligman (2005) developed the Orientations to Happiness (OTH) questionnaire to measure three ways of getting happy; life of pleasure (P; hedonism; maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain), life of engagement (E) and life of meaning (M; eudemonia; identifying with and using own virtues in the service of something larger). P and M result from the philosophical perspective of happiness. E, a newly introduced way to happiness, reflects the way of getting happy by gratification. There are activities that absorb and engage us fully; thus causing flow like Czikszentmihalyi (1990) postulated. Each of the three scales is measured by six items utilizing a 5-point Likert-scale. The OTH showed good psychometric properties (reliability, factor structure) and all three scales were positively related to life satisfaction. The questionnaire was translated into German in several steps: translation, back-translation, first modification, initial use and second modification. Up to now more than 10.000 German-speaking volunteers from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland completed the translated questionnaire (paper-pencil & online version) in the first empirical evaluation. Preliminary data-analysis after the second modification showed reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s Alpha) from .67 to .80. The expected three-factor structure was replicated in a confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA = .06; AGFI = .90). Relationships to socio-demographic data will be examined.
René Proyer
A recipe for a "positive psychology stew": German adaptations of nine questionnaires from positive psychology
Authors
René Proyer (University of Zurich)
Seligman and Peterson (2004) introduced a classification of 24 strengths of character and six virtues. The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; Peterson, & Seligman, 2003) is the standard measure for the subjective assessment of the 24 strengths. While the VIA-IS was already translated and validated in the German-language area there is a lack of German adaptations for other measures. Thus, in two empirical studies (N = 153; N = 205) the psychometric properties of adaptations of the Authentic Happiness Inventory Questionnaire (Peterson, 2005), the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory (Kashdan, Rose, & Fincham, in press), the Gratitude-Questionnaire (Emmons, & Tsang, 2002), the Grit-Survey (Duckworth, 2005), the Inspiration Scale (Thrash, & Elliott, 2003), the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, in press), the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (Brown, & Ryanm 2003), the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (Robitschek, 1996), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky, & Lepper, 1999) were examined. All questionnaires were translated and re-translated by a native speaker. Results showed good psychometric properties that were similar to the English versions. However, more work needs to be conducted in towards the verification of the validity of the instruments in the German-language context. The results will be discussed with respect to the current literature and further research directions will be outlined.
Willibald Ruch
German adaptation of the Values In Action – Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS)
Authors
Willibald Ruch (University of Zurich )
Positive psychology has reclaimed character and virtue as legitimate topics of investigation for social science. Over the past several years a classification of character strengths has been put forward (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) and assessment tools for the measurement of those strengths have been constructed. The values in action inventory of strengths (VIA-IS) utilized 240 items in a five-point answering format to assess 24 widely recognized character strengths organized under six ubiquous virtues, namely wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. In order to make the VIA-IS available for research with German speaking samples an adaptation of the instrument was undertaken. The adaptation utilized translation and independent back-translation and testing several samples filling in either the paper-pencil (N app. 1000 Swiss adults) or an online version (N about 22.000 Austrian, Swiss and German adults). The psychometric properties turned out to be roughly comparable to the American version, and the correlations with socio-demographic variables yielded comparable results too. An overview of some results underscoring the validity of the VIA-IS will be given.
Marco Weber
On the relationship between personality, life events, and life satisfaction
Authors
Marco Weber (University of Zurich)
Personality dispositions and external influences have been shown to have systematic effects on psychological well-being. The aim of this investigation was to analyse the relationship between personality, life events, and life satisfaction. A sample of 204 German adults (age: M=28.4, SD=13.2, Md=21.0; gender: 84.4% female, 15.6% male) was introduced to complete the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Ostendorf & Angleitner, 2004), a life event list (Angleitner, Riemann & Spinath, 1999), and the questionnaire for life goals and life satisfaction (FLL; Kraak & Nord-Rüdiger, 1989). The NEO-PI-R assesses five prominent broad personality dimensions, namely Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness to Experience (O), Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness (C). The life event list contains events, which are rated for frequency, hedonic value (positive vs. negative), and impact on personality. The FLL provides a life satisfaction score considering fifteen domains of life. N, E, A, and C showed a significant relationship to global life satisfaction. In detail, lower N scores, and higher E, A, and C scores were associated with higher life satisfaction scores. Examined personality dimensions were found to account for 30% of the variance in life satisfaction scores. Furthermore, both frequency of negative life events, and frequency of events rated to have a potential to transform personality were associated with lower life satisfaction scores.
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