Signature Strengths – Curiosity
July 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Happiness, Self Awareness
1.Curiosity
Read the description and rate your self either by putting a mark on the line where you are between the two anchor points “unlike me and like me” or you can rate yourself out of 10: unlike me = 0 and like me = 10.
If this is closer to being like you then it is a strength.
If it is closer to being unlike you then it is not such a strength.
You are curious about the world and you strongly desire experience of it. You are flexible about matters that don’t fit your preconceptions. Curious people do not simply tolerate ambiguity but they like it and are intrigued by it. You seek out novelty, and you are rarely bored.
Like Me___________________________________________Unlike Me
How to use this item.
1) If this item is a strength for you then list 3 ways you could use this strength more during your week or your day. Working to your strengths will improve your levels of well being.
2) If this item is unlike you, you may wish to work on it by finding 3 ways to work it into your week.
Signature Strengths
July 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Happiness, Self Awareness
Signature Strengths
Definitions:
Strengths: A strength is a pre-existing capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking or feeling that is authentic, energising and enables optimal functioning, development and performance.
Pre-existing capacity:
- The strength already exists within us, whether to a greater or lesser extent
- Even if a strength is latent – it is still there within us
- We can learn by “adding in” new things from the outside, but we can’t just pick and choose to have the strengths that we would like at any one time
- There are already the pathways in our brain that represent the strength. These pathways might have been there when we were born, or we might have developed them as young children. The key part about strengths being pre-existing capacities is that there is something in our biological or psychological make-up that predisposes us to have that particular strength.
Authentic Strengths:
- When people use their strengths, they feel like they are being the “real”, not the person that someone else wants them to be, but who they really are.
- Refers to being true to yourself and following your own directions and preferences in life, being honest with yourself and accepting yourself for who you are
- Enable people to be authentic because they are acting in a way that is right for them, something which is an integral part of human nature and a core influence on our well-being and fulfilment.
- Authentic strengths are identifiable across many different situations in the same people .
Energising Strengths:
- When people use their strengths, they feel as if they have more energy available to them. This does not mean that the strength can be used forever without rest. Recovery will be faster and burnout is less likely when using strengths.
- People using their strengths report having higher levels of vitality, a sense of energy and zest for life.
- Using strengths allows people to recharge as they are using them.
Optimal Functioning:
- Using strengths allows you to be at your best in terms of psychological functioning. You feel more engaged, more alive, more vigourous, and more in flow.
- Strengths also allow optimal development. We learn better in the areas where we are already strong. The neural networks – the brain wiring that underpins what we know and what we do – are already present for some strengths. It is easier for the brain to build on the pathways that it already has than it is to develop entirely new ones
- Optimal performance follows naturally from optimal functioning and development. When people are at their psychological peak of functioning, their most creative, energised, engaged and committed, when learning at their fastest and applying that learning and development to what they do, best performances follow.
The Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) handbook identifies six classes of virtue (i.e. “core virtues”). They are made up of twenty-four measurable character strengths. Character strengths are defined as satisfying most of the ten following criteria.
- fulfilling;
- Intrinsically valuable, in an ethical sense
- non-rivalrous;
- not the opposite of a desirable trait (a counterexample is steadfast and flexible, which are opposites but are both commonly seen as desirable);
- Trait-like (habitual patterns that are relatively stable over time);
- not a combination of the other character strengths in the CSV;
- personified (at least in the popular imagination) by people made famous through story, song, etc.;
- observable in child prodigies (though this criterion is not applicable to all character strengths);
- absent in some individuals;
- and nurtured by societal norms and institutions.
Everyone has a characteristic set of strengths and virtues, that is, things that they are “good” or “strong” on. Research in Positive Psychology suggests that there are (at least) 24 strengths and virtues that are recognized in most cultures. These are organized as follows:
- Wisdom and Knowledge (strengths that involve the acquisition and use of knowledge)
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Open-mindedness
- Love of Learning
- Perspective and Wisdom: the coordination of “knowledge and experience” and “its deliberate use to improve wellbeing.” Many, but not all, studies find that adults’ self-ratings of perspective/wisdom do not depend on age. This stands in contrast to the popular notion that wisdom increases with age.
- Courage (strengths that allow one to accomplish goals in the face of opposition)
- Bravery
- Persistence
- Integrity
- Vitality
- Humanity (strengths of tending and befriending others)
- Love
- Kindness
- Social Intelligence
- Justice (strengths that build healthy community)
- Active Citizenship/ Social Responsibility / Loyalty /Teamwork
- Fairness
- Leadership
- Temperance (strengths that protect against excess)
- Forgiveness and Mercy
- Humility and Modesty
- Prudence
- Self-regulation and Self Control
- Transcendence (strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning)
- Appreciation of Beauty and Appreciation of excellence
- Gratitude
- Hope
- Humor and Playfulness
- Spirituality
Values List
If you are having problems thinking of what your values might be, look over the following list and choose those that resonate with you. Then use them in the values exercises.
Acceptance
Accessibility
Accord
Accuracy
Achievement
Adaptability
Adequacy
Adventure
Agreement
Advisability
Agreeableness
Aliveness
Application
Appreciation
Appropriateness
Assurance
Authenticity
Autonomy/Independence
Balance
Balance
Beauty/Aesthetics/Nature
Brightness
Carefulness
Caring
Certainty
Challenge
Chastity
Clarity
Clearness
Collaboration/Connection/
Partnership
Comfort
Comfort
Commitment
Companionship
Competence
Compliance
Composure
Concern
Concord
Conformity
Connectedness
Connection
Consideration
Consistency
Constancy
Contentment
Continuity
Contribution/Service
Cooperation
Courage
Courtesy
Creativity
Desirableness
Detachment
Determination
Development
Devotion
Dignity
Direction
Directness
Discretion
Discrimination
Ease
Economy
Elegance
Elegance
Elegance
Empathy
Empowerment
Enchantment
Exaltation
Excellence
Excellence/ Mastery
Excitement
Fairness
Faith
Faith
Faithfulness
Favor
Felicity
Fidelity
Fitness
Fitness
Flexibility
Freedom to choose
Freshness
Fulfillment
Fun
Glory
Good
Goodness
Grace
Growth/Learning
Happiness
Harmony
Harmony
Health/Wellbeing/Fitness
Helping
Honesty
Honor
Humor
Inner Peace
Innovation
Integrity
Intelligence
Interest
Involvement
Joy
Justice
Justice
Keenness
Leadership
Learning
Love
Love
Loyalty
Luck
Making the World a better place
Mastery
Meaningful work
Mindfulness
Naturalness
Nature
Nobility
Nurturing
Order
Order/Orderliness
Peace/Tranquility
Perfection
Perseverance
Personal Power
Plainness
Playfulness
Pleasure
Power
Power
Productiveness
Propriety
Purity
Quickness
Quietness
Quietude
Readiness
Reason
Reasonableness
Recognition
Refinement
Regard
Regularity
Relationships
Reliability
Resilience
Resistance
Resistance
Resolution
Respect
Responsiveness
Results
Revolution
Rightness
Risk taking
Romance/Intimacy/Sensuality
Safety
Satisfaction
Security
Self Discipline
Self Expression
Self-reliance
Self-sufficiency
Sensitivity
Service to Others
Simplicity
Simplicity
Sincerity
Solving problems
Soundness
Spirituality
Spontaneity
Stability
Stimulating Change
Strength
Success/Achievment/Victory
Sufficiency
Suitability
Superiority
Support
Support
Sympathy
Synergy
Temperance
To be Known/Self expression
Tolerance
Tradition
Trust
Truth
Understanding
Uniformity
Uniqueness
Unity
Using my abilities
Vitality
Wisdom
Zest
Values
Values
Is Happiness in your top 5 Values? If you want to be happy you need to value happiness in your life and like anything else you need to practice techniques for developing and maintaining happiness.
Do you know what your values are? If you do are they helping you achieve what you want in life and do they support your actions in getting there?
Today we are going to examine the concept of values and in the next few posts look at clarifying and choosing values.
Value is a concept that describes the beliefs of an individual or culture. A set of values may be placed into the notion of a value system. Values are considered subjective and vary across people and cultures. Types of values include ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (political, religious) values, social values, and aesthetic values.
Personal values
Personal values evolve from experiences with the external world and can change over time. Integrity in the application of values refers to its continuity; persons have integrity if they apply their values appropriately regardless of arguments or negative reinforcement from others. Values are applied appropriately when they are applied in the right area. For example, it would be appropriate to apply religious values in times of happiness as well as in times of despair.
Personal values are implicitly related to choice; they guide decisions by allowing for an individual’s choices to be compared to each choice’s associated values.
Personal values developed early in life may be resistant to change though this is disputed. They may be derived from those of particular groups or systems, such as culture, religion, and political party. However, personal values are not universal; one’s genes, family, nation and historical environment determine one’s personal values. This is not to say that the value concepts themselves are not universal, merely that each individual possess a unique conception of them i.e. a personal knowledge of the appropriate values for their own genes, feelings and experience.
Cultural values
Groups, societies, or cultures have values that are largely shared by its members. Members share a culture even if each member’s personal values do not entirely agree with some normative values sanctioned in the culture. This reflects an individual’s ability to synthesize and extract aspects valuable to them from the multiple subcultures they belong to.
If an individual expresses a value that is in serious conflict with their group’s norms, the group’s authority may carry out various ways of stigmatizing or conforming the individual. For example, imprisonment can result from conflict with social norms that have been established as law.
Finding Your Own Personal Values
To help you find your bearings in life one of the most important things to consider is your values. Values are the principles & priorities which help us make decisions on a daily basis. If you truly value honesty, you will choose to be honest in interactions. If you value family strongly, you will make time in your life for family. If growth is a top value for you, you will make decisions which encourage personal development. You must consider what is important to you. Many of our values are handed down to us by important figures in our lives, usually parents and other adults we interact with. Often we have not thought about the values given to us, wether they suit us, wether they are outdated or wether they support us in our lives.
As we continue to mature, other influences such as peers & the media affect our values. With so many influences telling you what to value, how do you know what is really important to you?
It is important to understand that values are not static. They are dynamic, changing as we develop over the course of our lives. What we often do not realize is that we can consciously choose and change our values if necessary.
Once chosen values become one of the guides by which we can make our decisions and for what actions we are going to take as we move towards our goals and dreams.
To Understand how to know what values are really important to us, if they support us or if they are outdated we must complete a Values Clarification.
Why is Values Clarification Important?
If values affect so many decisions & actions in our lives, it is best that we understand them & that our behavior is in line with our values. Many professionals say that family is their top value. However, many of these same people make very little time for their families. There is a discrepancy between what they profess to value, and their actions. However, if we make an effort to understand our values, it is easier to keep our priorities in the right order & our actions in line with our beliefs. If you sit down & realize that family is important to you, you are most likely to make the time for your family. Values clarification simply refers to any process a person might go through to discover and clarify their values and to bring values and behaviours into alignment.
How to Clarify Your Values
To explore what your core values are and how your value system affects your dreams ask yourself the following questions and write the answers in the spaces:
What do you find yourself doing most often?
How do you spend your spare time?
What do you talk about?
What do you do on your days off?
What offends your sense of justice and what provokes indignation and outrage?
Ask yourself, “If I only had 24 hours left to live, how would I spend them?”
Which of your values are you most proud of?
If you were to choose the values that would help you realize your dream what would they be?
Consider opposing values (honesty vs. white lies) and the situations where they are applicable.
Put yourself on a continuum for different situations.
“Pay attention to what is done not what is said”
Develop conscious awareness of values by training yourself to observe your actions and thoughts.
Look at what you have declared your values to be, is there an overall theme or principle.
Is there a line you would never step over.
You should now have a list of personal values that have been influencing your decisions and actions. Enter the twenty of the possible values and rank them from most to least important for you. If you havent reached or cant think of 20 use the Values List
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
What is your core Value
What is the single most important value I stand for in my life?
In what ways do I demonstrate this?
What value is the core for my reason for being?
What actions have I taken in the past week to show its importance?
How does it fit into living my dream?
Are you true to your most important values.
Make a “Pie Chart” of your top five values and compare it to your calendar. Are you really spending as much
time as you would like on your values?
Remember these are the most important values to you now. They may change in ten minutes or in ten years.
Put this list where you will see it during the coming week.
For each action you take during the day ask if it was living out of your values.
Full Values
A Full Value is one which is truly and entirely held by you. Answering yes to all seven questions defines a full value. When appropriate, an alternative question is seen in the parentheses.
Seven Questions to Identify Full Values
1. Was the value chosen freely (without force or coercion)?
2. Was the value chosen from alternatives (or was it the only choice)?
3. Was the value chosen after considerations of the consequences of this value?
4. Do you cherish the value? In other words, does the value make you happy?
5. Are you willing to publicly affirm that this is a value to hold?
6. Are you acting on the value (or is it just something that is said)?
7. Do you display this value repeatedly and consistently?
My Biggest Question to You
Is Happiness on your list of values?
Is it in the top five?
If it is not then you have to place it on the list and make some time in your life to work at being and sustaining happiness.
As usual have a fantastic day filled with subjective well being.
Nevin
References
Values Clarification – Simon, Howe, & Kirschenbaum(1995)
Turning Points – Goodman (1978)
Teaching Values in College – Morrill (1980)
Colorado State University Leadership and Diversity Programme.
Wikipedia
Photo Credit
Nevin Taylor
Happiness
Hi Everyone
Happiness. It seems to be something that we are all seeking or are interested in maintaining if we have already achieved it.
I have spent a large part of my career helping people manage mental illnesses. When asked what do they really want, there are some usually superficial items, then some more deeper goals and finally what they really want is to be happy.
The Purpose of this site is to provide you with understandings of your self and your behaviours such that you can then choose to apply the many techniques from the fields of psychology, psychiatry, personal growth and development to improving and sustaining your level of happiness and success.
We will look at self awareness, personality, temperament, other factors. We will look at many techniques to help develop happiness and sustain it .
In my field, being happy is seen as an absence of pathology, so I will talk to about psychopathology that may impact on your ability to achieve what you want in your life. However happiness is more than the absence of pathology. We will explore many factors within ourselves and techniques to improve both ourselves and our environment in pursuit of our goals, being happy and being successful.
Self-awareness
Identity
Purpose
What You Liked in Your Life Exercise
Vision and possibility
Mission
Values and Belief Systems
Roles Rigid, self-defining roles
Goals Wants and desires, Preferences, The “Availability heuristic”
Needs
Unclear identity
Life Scripts
How we talk to ourselves
- Self Talk
- Thinking Styles
- Cognitive Errors
Explanatory Style – The 3 Ps
ABCDEs of Successful Mind Management
How we Talk to Others
Beliefs and Assumptions Nothing better to do
How to Change Them
Unhelpful Behaviours Addictions, Compulsions, Emotional damage, Triggers, Mental Illness
Tradition and status quo
Permission & motivation
Capabilities and Skills
Behavior (Maps & models, strategies, Direction & choice, Specific behaviors, Actions & reactions)
Environment (External context, Opportunities & Constraint)
Ignorance Fears
Pleasure and Pain
Procrastination
Rewards and incentives
Resources, tools
Supports
Upbringing and family
Models and examples
Support structures
Family
Friends
Accountability Partners
Mastermind alliances
Professionals
Lifestyle
Living environment
Work environment
Happiness
Past
Present
Future
Anchoring Happiness
