What Are Character Strengths and Virtues? A Path to Your True Self
Written by Kirsti Formoso, MSc. Transpersonal Psychology, BSc. Psychology
Have you ever wondered why certain qualities feel so natural to you, like kindness, curiosity, or perseverance, while others seem harder to embody?
Character strengths and virtues offer a lens through which we can begin to know ourselves more objectively. Not just for personal development, but for peeling back the layers of what we’re not. As a transpersonal psychologist, I see these strengths as foundational tools in the deeper journey of self-inquiry and inner work.
In this article, we’ll explore what character strengths are, how they relate to both psychology and spirituality, and how they can support your journey toward truth.
KNOW THYSELF AND SELF-INQUIRY
Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”. If we have one purpose in life, I believe it is this: to know ourselves. Now, we’re complex multi-dimensional creatures of layers and context.
Who I am is fluid and changing on the surface, and yet my essential spiritual self is stable and enduring. And somewhere in between, in our psyche, is all the rest. And that includes our character strengths and virtues.
In many ways, our character strengths and virtues define who we are in day-to-day life. And yet, many of us lack the self-awareness to know which ones we possess naturally and which we might like to work on. But knowing your character strengths and virtues can build confidence and resilience, improve well-being and personal relationships, and help us find life satisfaction and purpose.
It also gives us a clearer picture of who we are, who we are not, and the essence of who we are as an incarnate being on this planet in this lifetime.
WHAT ARE CHARACTER STRENGTHS?
Thanks to positive psychology, a scientific field that focuses on understanding and promoting positive emotions, strengths, and well-being, we know a lot about how people's character strengths play a role in our lives.
Character strengths are positive traits that are valued in a person and enable them to thrive. They are the positive aspects of an individual’s personality that help them navigate life’s challenges. Each person has a unique set of character strengths, and all positive character strengths have their merit.
There are 24 character strengths organised into six broad virtue categories: wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.
THE SIX VIRTUE CATEGORIES OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Virtue of Wisdom and Knowledge
This virtue involves acquiring and using knowledge to make informed decisions.
It's a cognitive strength.
Character strengths associated with wisdom and knowledge include creativity, curiosity, a love of learning, and open-mindedness.
Virtue of Courage
This virtue involves accomplishing goals despite opposition or challenges.
It involves feeling the fear and doing it anyway, stepping up to the plate and going it alone.
Character strengths associated with courage include bravery, perseverance, honesty, and zest.
Virtue of Humanity
This virtue involves caring for and befriending others.
It's about interpersonal strengths.
Character strengths associated with humanity include love, kindness, and social intelligence.
Virtue of Justice
This virtue involves civic strengths that underscore the importance of a healthy community.
It involves being other-centric and service-oriented.
Character strengths associated with justice include teamwork, fairness, and leadership.
Virtue of Temperance
This virtue involves protecting against excesses in life.
It involves self-regulation and overcoming our egoic tendencies for power and control.
Character strengths associated with temperance include forgiveness and mercy, modesty and humility, prudence, and self-regulation.
Virtue of Transcendence
The virtue of transcendence involves forging connections with something larger than oneself.
It involves heart work, presence, and mindfulness.
Character strengths associated with transcendence include an appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humour, religiousness, and spirituality.
THE 24 CHARACTER STRENGTHS
Let's have some fun! Look through the 24 signature strengths and jot down all those you think apply to you.
🔶 Virtue of Wisdom and Knowledge
Creativity
Curiosity
Judgement
Love of learning
Perspective
🔶 Virtue of Courage
Bravery
Honesty
Perseverance
Zest
🔶 Virtue of Humanity
Kindness
Love
Social intelligence
🔶 Virtue of Justice
Fairness
Leadership
Teamwork
🔶 Virtue of Temperance
Forgiveness
Humility
Prudence
Self-regulation.
🔶 Virtue of Transcendence
Appreciation of beauty and excellence
Gratitude
Hope
Humour
Spirituality
HOW TO IDENTIFY YOUR TOP CHARACTER STRENGTHS
Now, let's find out what your truly unique character strengths are. The VIA Inventory of Strengths is a widely used assessment tool to identify an individual’s top character strengths. It provides a personalised profile of strengths that can be used to improve well-being and life satisfaction.
If you're ready to discover your greatest strengths, you can do the Values in Action inventory at the VIA Institute of Character. When you're done, come back here and compare what you jotted down earlier to what you discovered by doing the VIA.
USING CHARACTER STRENGTHS AND POSITIVE TRAITS FOR PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Tests like the VIA help us get a much clearer idea of who we are. And the better we know ourselves and our strengths and weaknesses, the more we will thrive in life. While psychological psychometric tests like this can tell us a lot objectively, we can also take that information and reflect on what that means to us personally as part of our personal development plan and spiritual journey.
Five Character Strength Journal Prompts
Reflecting and journaling on the following questions could be a good start:
Remember that each character strength falls into one of the virtue categories. Do you have character strengths across the virtue categories, or do your character strengths tend to reflect one or two core values? How do you feel about that?
Where might you need to develop your character a bit more? What virtue are you missing, and how can you develop that virtue?
Which character strengths did you know about, and which of your character strengths took you by surprise?
Did you expect to see other character strengths in your profile that were not there? What could you do to develop those strengths?
To harness the power of your personal strengths, which strengths would you like to learn more about and why?
DEVELOPING YOUR CHARACTER STRENGHTS
There's no end to what we can do with our strengths and how we can apply them, but here are some ideas to get you started:
Work and Career: Identify how you can use your strengths to improve job performance, take on new challenges, or seek roles that align with your strengths.
Relationships: Use your strengths to build and maintain healthy relationships. For instance, if kindness is a strength, find ways to support and uplift those around you.
Self-love: If one of your character strengths is forgiveness, try directing it at yourself to become a better version of you.
Health and Well-being: Apply strengths like self-regulation and perseverance to maintain healthy habits, such as regular exercise or mindful eating.
Strength-Based Goals: Set goals that align with your strengths. For example, if one of your strengths is creativity, set a goal to start a new creative project.
Balanced Growth: While focusing on strengths, also consider areas for growth. Use your strengths to address and improve weaker areas.
Daily Practice: Incorporate activities that utilise your strengths into your daily routine. This could be problem-solving tasks if analytical thinking is your strength, or helping others if social intelligence is your strength.
Mindfulness: Practice mindfulness to stay aware of your strengths and how you apply them. Reflect on your day and recognise moments when you used your strengths effectively.
Emotional strengths: If you're constantly running from your emotions, but courage is one of your strengths, try applying those strengths to embrace your own emotions. Or, if you're creative, use that creativity to explore your emotions.
CHARACTER STRENGTHS AND YOUR SELF-CONCEPT
A healthy self-concept is critical for well-being. While we often talk about self-esteem and self-confidence, I find that a robust self-concept is far more important and impactful in your life. Self-concept is something you can actively work on and control, while self-esteem and self-confidence can be a bit more elusive.
Working with your character strengths helps build a healthy self-concept by focusing on your strengths and reflecting on how your signature strengths interact in a unique way. This is fundamental to a positive self-concept, but self-concept goes a lot further and is a powerful part of success, fulfilment and happiness.
VIRTUES, CHARACTER STRENGTHS AND SPIRITUALITY
While most people think of spiritual development as transcending our self-concept, without a strong and stable self-concept, this can lead to spiritual bypassing. As Jack Engler said, you have to be somebody before you can be nobody.
Working with your character strengths and virtues to develop a strong sense of self should be part of your spiritual journey for a healthy, stable and secure spiritual awakening.
USING CHARACTER STRENGTHS TO FORGE POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
If you want more positive relationships, harnessing the power of your positive strengths can go a long way. Our strengths are there for a reason, and their combination creates a unique character strengths profile that you can bring to your relationships.
Sharing your strengths with friends and family who have a different combination of unique character strengths can enhance the relationship for all parties. For example, I can be quite serious and deep, while humour is one of my husband's character strengths. He always brings lighthearted fun to a dire situation, and we both benefit from that.
On the other hand, one of my strengths is a love of learning, and I share all that I learn with my husband, providing him with fresh insights, perspectives, and new knowledge.
Knowing who we are and leaning into our character strengths can help us build real, meaningful and deep connections and friendships.
CHARACTER STRENGTHS AND WELL-BEING
Identifying and developing character strengths can increase confidence, life satisfaction and well-being. It's an adventure well worth investing in. By strengthening ourselves, we become more resilient, increase our self-esteem, and develop into the person we came here to be. We're more directed and in tune with our purpose, which gives us a sense of living a fulfilling life.
Focusing on our character strengths instead of our weaknesses can massively improve our well-being levels and our relationship with our selves and others. It can be an antidote to the inner critic, greatly improving how we see ourselves, how we judge ourselves and what we say to ourselves.
INSIGHT HIGHLIGHTS
Discovering your top character strengths can be a powerful way of discovering who you really are and what you value. It can help you build confidence, find purpose and live a fulfilling life. Use the VIA survey to discover your unique strengths profile and which virtues you are strongest in. Working with your character strength to develop personally will enhance your relationship with yourself and others, improving your well-being along the way.
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