Assessment Battery for Positive Psychology

My Greatest Personal Strengths  Strengths are what makes a person memorable and an asset to a group/team. They can be acquired through practice and experience, but some strengths we are born with. After taking the assessments, I have realized that my gratitude, perspective, leadership, honesty, kindness, and love are at the top. This assignment made me realize that there are so many other strengths that I have, and I truly practice constantly that I have never reflected or picked up on. The assessments also let me into a comparison that allowed me to reflect where my gratitude and forgiveness are compared to the mean of what college students survey.  Justice To my surprise justice is one that has slipped my mind, but it is very valuable to me. I think that everyone deserves justice because ideally it would be an even exchange from what one puts out and what they receive. One way I can explain this is how they treat others is how they will get treated. Typical golden rule, but I truly think this is true and it is also correlated with how they feel about themselves. I am the type of person that everyone is equal to me no matter their position, power, experience, etc, so it does not matter if I am speaking to my friend or the CEO of a company, I am eager to work for, I will remain myself and treat both equally. I strive to treat others accordingly because in the future I was to be a lawyer and the job of a lawyer is to bring justice to individuals. It would be ironic to not practice justice in my daily life while dreaming of being a lawyer for people seeking justice.  Courage  Courage is not just the drive someone has to keep going despite the obstacles they are facing. Courage is being able to take the “high road” and not let fear get in the way. From a young age I have faced different journeys where I had two options: stay stuck and victimize myself or to push myself to overcome the situation and let it be a learning opportunity. When I was just two, I moved countries. I went from being surrounded by family, my grandparents were around me daily, and I was growing up around my other seven cousins that were close in age to me. I moved as a single child with my two parents who took the risk to move and it was lonely. We knew nothing of English and lived up North. A couple months after our move, we faced harsh winters, snow days, and icy roads, all which were new to us coming from Colombia where it never drops below 69 degrees F. My parents are the prime example of courage. They took a major risk and never let fear get in the way of pursuing their bigger dreams. I had no option than to follow and be filled with courage. When I moved to Texas in my second year of high school I had to continue with courage and pave my way. After growing up in the same city for over a decade, I had to find new colleges to apply to, new friendships, new culture, and a new life. At this moment in my life, I crave new things, risks, and new opportunities that allow me to grow and move past my fear.  Honesty Honesty is a quality that we should all possess, but as I grow older, I realize it is not quite as easy. It takes being vulnerable and one’s full self to be fully honest, so it could be easy to assume that everyone is not fully honest. However, it is important to be honest in all things correlated to saying the truth. It is important in relationships, friendships, workplace, in school, and daily life. I like to live my life as honest as possible. It begins with being honest with myself and I have gotten in the habit of allowing myself to be honest and understanding with myself. An example would be I failed this task because I did not put in my full effort and that is okay. Instead of lying to myself to feel better and find something else to blame. In my relationships with people I prefer to be honest about how I feel and who I truly am instead of having to keep up with someone I

am not. Being honest comes with being trustworthy because those around you will see you as someone who will be consistent and dependable. Being honest keeps my conscience clear and eventually it has led me to friendships that work for me and are lasting and it has allowed me to learn more about myself and learn more about who I am. It is not easy to always be honest, especially in a situation where maybe lying or blaming is easier but having to live with a dirty conscience seems far worse!  Influence One of the characteristics I have newly discovered in myself is influence. Influence on others because of my creativity or because of the way I analyze situations. I have realized that in group settings I tend to volunteer my ideas and most of the time the group agrees with them, but in the end everyone adds their own touch. The past year I held a position in an organization on campus, I was the director of PR & Marketing and after my term was done my results were more interactions on social media, higher following count for the organization’s page, and a bigger audience. The new person who has taken this role seems to be following most of the ideas I put in place. I received positive feedback, and many members would highlight my work, people in higher up positions asked for my opinions and ideas to put in place. I see influencing others as a way of recognizing the good I do and the effort I put into the tasks I do because if others did not share ideas or ask for my input, it would be a sign that I should work on the work I produce and the actions I take. However, being able to take feedback and also take ideas from others is important to being an influence to others. It allows me to think in other ways that I would not have thought of before.  After completing the activity, I concluded that one of the characteristics I could work on is forgiveness. My scores were lower than the means of other college students.

My Personal Goals for Myself for Self-Development in this Course  Get better at seeing the positive side of a difficult situation  Learning more about my strengths  How to apply Positive Psychology in my daily life  Increase my positive experiences  

Assessment Battery for Positive Psychology (PSYC 3000) VIEW #1 Part of your VIEW Journal is to write an essay on your strengths (along with an essay on challenges and list of dreams and personal goals for the course). This assessment battery is to give you evidence for writing that just goes beyond the narrative. Psychological scientists base their writing on DATA. Your grade will be much better if you include a digest of the data within your essay. Note: This is not merely including the scores in relation to the means. It means that you integrate the scores (in relation to the means, when available) within your personal analysis of yourself. I have provided 5 scales and included the link to the VIA-IS. Valuing the Virtues ( Berry and Worthington) To what extent do you personally value each of the personal characteristics listed below? Please circle your responses. I don’t I value value this this very at all highly Justice: treating others with fairness according to what they deserve. . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Self-control: the ability to control one’s emotions, desires, and actions. . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Forgiveness: to replace anger with neutral or positive feelings toward someone who hurt or offended you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Compassion: to sympathize with the suffering of others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Temperance: moderation or self-restraint in desires or actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Courage: facing danger with confidence, resolution, and firm control of oneself. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Patience: ability to endure difficulties with calmness and understanding. . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Humility: lack of vanity, arrogance, or self-righteousness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Honesty: being truthful and genuine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Prudence: wise and careful in handling practical matters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Love: intense affection and warm feelings for others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Forbearance: the ability to refrain from acting when it is unwise or unwanted. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Gratitude: thankfulness for the good things one has received in life. . . . . . . . 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Trait Forgivingness Scale (TFS; Measure of Disposition to Forgive) Directions: Indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with each statement below by using the following scale: 5 = Strongly Agree 4 = Mildly Agree 3 = Agree and Disagree Equally 2 = Mildly Disagree 1 = Strongly Disagree ___2____ 1. People close to me probably think I hold a grudge too long. ___2____ 2. I can forgive a friend for almost anything. ___3____ 3. If someone treats me badly, I treat him or her the same. ___2____ 4. I try to forgive others even when they don’t feel guilty for what they did. ___3____ 5. I can usually forgive and forget an insult. ___1____ 6. I feel bitter about many of my relationships. ___2____ 7. Even after I forgive someone, things often come back to me that I resent. ___5____ 8. There are some things for which I could never forgive even a loved one. ___2____ 9. I have always forgiven those who have hurt me. ___3____ 10. I am a forgiving person. M = 34.2 SD = 6.7 Reverse score: 1, 3, 6, 7, and 8 (so a 5, meaning you agree with item 1, for example, would get you a 1 when reversed) How did you score relative to the mean? This indicates how forgiving you are relative to other college students. Score: 25 The Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6) Using the scale below as a guide, write a number beside each statement to indicate how much you agree with it. 1 = strongly disagree 2 = disagree 3 = slightly disagree 4 = neutral 5 = slightly agree 6 = agree 7 = strongly agree __7__ 1. I have so much in life to be thankful for. __7__ 2. If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list. __1__ 3. When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for. __7__ 4. I am grateful to a wide variety of people. __7__ 5. As I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people, events, and situations that have been part of my life history. __1_ 6. Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or someone. M = 33.3 Reverse score: 3, 6 How did you score relative to the mean? This indicates how much gratitude you show relative to other college students. Score: 31

Rokeach Value Survey Following at 18 Terminal Values and 18 Instrumental Values Rate each Value on how important it is to you on the following scale: 0=not important 1=slightly important 2=somewhat important 3=important 4=very important Value Rating (0 to 4) Top five Terminal and top five Instrumental Values—mark with * Indicate top three in each category 1= highest; 2= next; 3= third Terminal Values A comfortable live (a prosperous life) 4 * An exciting life (a stimulating, active life) 4 * 3 A sense of accomplishment (lasting contribution) 4 A world at peace (free of war and conflict) 4 A world of beauty (beauty of nature and the arts) 4 Equality (brother/sisterhood, equal opportunity for all) 4 Family security (taking care of loved ones) 4 Freedom (independence, free choice) 4 Happiness (contentedness) 4 * 2 Inner Harmony (freedom from inner conflict) 4 * Mature love (sexual and spiritual intimacy) 3 National security (protection from attack) 4 Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life) 4 Salvation (saved, eternal life) 3 Self-respect (self-esteem) 4 1 Social recognition (respect, admiration) 2 True friendship (close companionship) 2 Wisdom (a mature understanding of life) 3 * Instrumental Values Ambitious (hard-working, aspiring) 4 * Broadminded (open-minded) 4 Capable (competent, effective) 4 Cheerful (lighthearted, joyful) 3 Clean (neat, tidy) 3 3 Courageous (standing up for your beliefs) 3 Forgiving (willing to pardon others) 2 Helpful (working for the welfare of others) 3 Honest (sincere, truthful) 4 * 1