Week 2 - Strengths Flashcards by Emma R

Psychometrics

Psychometric Properties: the measurement characteristics of the tools

Reliability: the extent to which a scale is consistent or stable Cronbach’s a is commonly used
–Is the questionnaire stable?

Validity: the extent to which a scale measures what it is supposed to measure

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Is the test valid?

Tests shouldn’t be “valid” but a test’s relative validity must be assessed?

Sometimes need to disguise it a little bit
MMPI - Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory - do all kids look like moneys - yes= low empathy - low face validity - does appear to be measuring this

Is the test measuring te construct it is intended to measure?
Is the test being used with the population for which it is intended?
Is the test being used for the application for which it is intended?

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Standardization

Administration - test is given the same way every time
–Who administers the instrument
–Specific instructions, order of items, timing etc
–Varies greatly

Scoring - test is scored the same way every time
Who scores the instrument
–Correct, partial and incorrect answers, points awarded etc
–Varies greatly

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Classifications and Measures of Strengths
Karl Menniger

Karl Menniger suggested development of a new diagnostic system
—Attempted to change how health care viewed diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental illness.
—Called for development of diagnostic system that described the life process rather than states or conditions
—Power of hope faith love
—“What about the productive and healthy aspects of personal functioning?”

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Currently, we have a better understanding of weaknesses than strengths

Ex. ICD, DSM
—–WHO - International Classifications of Diseases (ICD)
————-All diseases
——APA’s DSM-5

No classifications of strengths have achieved worldwide acceptance

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Currently, we have a better understanding of weaknesses than strengths

Ex. ICD, DSM
—–WHO - International Classifications of Diseases (ICD)
————-All diseases
——APA’s DSM-5

No classifications of strengths have achieved worldwide acceptance

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Existing classifications of strengths

The Gallup Themes of Talent

The Values in Action Classifications of Strengths

The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets

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Two Prevalent Models of Strengths

Elements of character that produce virtue
Example: VIA strengths
Personal competencies that generate optimal performance
Example: Clifton StrengthsFinder

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Gallup’s Clifton Strengths Finder (Clifton, 1999; Gallup Organization)

Analysis of success: “What would happen if we studied what is right with people?”

Clifton emphasized talents - what allows us to do well in a business environment
1. Talents: “naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied”
2. trait-like “raw materials” to be the products of normal, healthy development and successful childhood and adolescence experiences

Talents can be operationalized, studied, and accentuated in work/school
Success is related to talents and strengths
StrengthsFinder 2.0 currently has 34 themes

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Gallup’s Clifton Strengths Finder - Empirically Driven Creation

Semistructured interviews to identify talents - different job sites and started interviewing people
———–interviews also were useful in predicting positive outcomes

Examined roles, visited job sites, identified superstars, and determined what was associated with success

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To create StrengthsFinder tool, Clifton wrote 5000 items using empirically supported techniques.

Selection of items was based on traditional construct, content, and criterion validity evidence, suggesting that the tool tapped underlying attributes, the full depth and breadth of content, and the shared relationships and predictive powers, respectively

Sends the items out to experts in the field and gets feedback - factor and reliability analysis

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Caveats- Gallup’s Clifton Strengths Finder

not designed or validated for use in employee selection or mental health screening

Using it for comparisons of individuals’ profiles is discouraged.

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What is it used for? - Gallup’s Clifton Strengths Finder

Used to identify personal talents and build on talents to develop strengths

Used in college/uni and business populations for personal development

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Gallup’s Clifton Strengths Finder EIRS

Executing
—Know how to make things happen
Achiever, arranger, responsibility
Manager, entrepreneur, event planner

Influencing
—-Take charge, speak up, and make sure the team is heard
—–Communication, competition, self assurance

Relationship Building
——Build strong relationships that can hold a team together and make the team greater than the sum of its parts
——Adaptability, connectedness, empathy
HR, therapy, customer relations

Strategic Thinking
—-Help teams consider what could be - absorb and analyze info that can inform better decision

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VIA classification of Strengths

Some consider this the antithesis of the DSM

designed to describe the individual differences of character strengths on continua and not as distinct categories

Provides a common language of strengths

Six overarching virtues, 24 strengths

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VIA classification of Strengths- Created in response to 2 questions:

How can one define the concepts of “strengths” and “highest potential”?

How can one tell that a positive youth development program has succeeded in meeting its goals?

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Components of character:

Virtues (core characteristics valued by some moral philosophers, religious thinkers, and everyday folk)

Character Strengths (psychological processes and mechanisms that define virtues)

Situational Themes (specific habits that lead people to manifest strengths in particular situations)

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Via Reliability and Validity

Reliability:
—all scales have satisfactory consistency and stability across a 4‐month period
—Correlations among scales are higher than expected
—Women score higher on humanity; African ——-Americans score higher on spirituality

Validity
—Other (friends/family) ratings correlate at .50 with self‐reports
—The majority of scales correlate positively with life satisfaction
—Factor analysis support six virtues

The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets

Conceptualized in 1980s to answer, “What protects children from today’s problems?”

Internal and external variables that contribute to a child’s thriving

Commonplace positive experiences and qualities

20 internal and 20 external assets

Not much data for psychometric properties for the 156‐item Search Institute

Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviours
–Results of research indicate that correlations exist between developmental assets and health behaviours in grades 7‐12
Paid questionnaire

The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets - EXTERNAL sebc

Support - Family support; positive family communication; other adult relationships; caring neighbourhood; caring school climate; parent involvement in schooling

Empowerment Community - values youth; youth as resources; service to others; safety

Boundaries and Expectations - Family boundaries - consequences; school boundaries; neighbourhood boundaries; adult role models; positive peer influence; high expectations

Constructive Use of Time - Creative activities; youth programs; religious community; time at home

The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets - INTERNAL lpsp

Commitment to Learning - Achievement motivation; school engagement; homework; bonding to school; reading for pleasure

Positive Values - Caring; equality and social justice; integrity; honesty; responsibility; restraint

Social Competencies - Planning and decision‐making; interpersonal competence; cultural competence; resistance skills; peaceful conflict resolution

Positive Identity - Personal power; self‐esteem; sense of purpose; positive view of personal future

Issues of Equivalence in Using Measures of Psychological Strength clm

Each of these scales was developed within a western framework

issues of conceptual equivalence ‐ Different cultures may conceptualize constructs differently

Issues of linguistic equivalence – if translated, scale may contain culturally‐based expression, idioms (“it’s raining cats and dogs”, vocabulary etc. - have to take out cultural based expression and word use

Issues of metric equivalence – Likert scales may be problematic as some cultures may not want to score on the extreme ends -
—-Different factor structures found in the VIA‐IS! - depending on where we administer it - different factor solutions

Which Country is Happiest?

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Better Life Index
Measures well‐being of societies on different indices of well‐being
United States 6.9 on Life Satisfaction; rank 17/40 Canada 7.4 on Life Satisfaction; rank 7/40 Denmark 7.6 on Life Satisfaction; rank 3/40 Norway 7.6 on Life Satisfaction; rank 2/40 Finland 7.6 on Life Satisfaction; rank 1/40
Finland and Denmark are the happiest

Happiness vs. Contentment

Nordic Countries and Happiness
Distinction between high Positive Emotion and Life Satisfaction

Lykke (luu‐kah) (n): Danish, Happiness
(state of exceptional happiness experienced once in a while)

Glad (glo) (n): Danish, Happiness
(mindset of being happy, usually. Not special)

Ways of Understanding “Positive” Positive as good intentions

Many psychologists want to help other people and this is a worthy goal “Good intentions” does not seem like the best way to define positive psychology though Psychologists who study the links between traumatic brain injury and mental illness do not wish either of these on people; rather, they hope to generate knowledge that will help alleviate suffering Good intentions are found throughout science but they do not distinguish positive psychology uniquely

Ways of Understanding “Positive” - Positive as an ideological perspective

Like the humanistic psychological tradition, we might assume that people are naturally good This is problematic from a scientific perspective It's not a good idea to define an entire branch of psychology with an assumption about human nature ---Our theories can make these assumptions but we must put them to the test

Ways of Understanding “Positive” - Positive as an appreciative stance

Rather than assuming that people are good, a researcher with an appreciative stance is able to collect information objectively, yet look at this information from a positive perspective This can be useful, but we should remain cautious of a slide towards problematic positive biases

Ways of Understanding “Positive” - Positive as a set of topics

We can look at positivity via its topics ; Positive psychology is about positive things Are we merely focusing on new terms to study the old issues? No. “I want to eliminate James is depression” versus “I want to make James happier

Dimensions of Well‐Being Pursuit of Happiness – often described as positive psychology’s central outcome HOWEVER, the pursuit of happiness is only one aspect

Realizing potentials Pursuing interests Nurturing Others Leading authentic lives Pursuit of happiness

Happiness and life satisfaction are elements of emotional well‐being

Happiness: spontaneous reflections of pleasant and unpleasant feelings in one’s immediate experience Life Satisfaction: a sense of contentment and peace stemming from small gaps between wants and needs

Subjective Well-Being

to suggest that individuals’ appraisals of their own lives capture the essence of well-being Positive feelings = positive emotions Negative feelings Gap between who i am and who i want to be Being optimistic

The Six‐factor Model of Psychological Well‐being - Keyes

Not just feeling good - also living a life of virtue 1. Self‐acceptance - Accept who you are - Accept that you have faults 2. Personal growth 3. Purpose in life 4. Environmental mastery 5. Autonomy - stay aligned with goals and values independently of other people 6. Positive relations with others -----Psychological well‐being is attained by achieving a state of balance affected by both challenging and rewarding life events.

Objective Well‐Being - Indicators of Social Well‐Being

1. Social acceptance – holding favorable views of others 2. Social actualization – belief in the evolution of society (hopefulness) 3. Social coherence – perception of quality, organization, and operation of the social world 4. Social contribution – evaluation of one’s social value 5. Social integration – evaluation of one’s relationship to community

Dimensions of Well‐Being Subjective and objective

Subjective well‐being theories emphasize appraisals - how do i see myself in the world - am I developing a meaningful life Objective approaches include psychological and social wellbeing Both constitute a more complete portrayal of mental health

Flourishing

High levels of emotional well‐being High levels of psychological well‐being High levels of social well‐being

Languishing

Those who have no mental illness, but who have low levels of well‐being

Agape - spiritual love (selflessness and altruism)

May be most beneficial, even if not celebrated Use our strengths! Be more giving and build relationships based on selflessness

Romantic love - eros - includes passionate romantic love

Resilient love, sustained romantic love - how do we maintain a relationship for many years Both types of love - agape, romantic - in this context need more research

Positive Outcomes Associated with School, Work and Civic Contributions

Can we measure how positive schooling contributes to psychological growth? Can we measure how gainful employment contributes to psychological growth? Civic contributions and development ie. volunteering Multicultural competence ie. learning and experiencing other cultures

Positive Outcomes associated with play

Social emotional and physical skils Play in adulthood is undervalued More research is needed

Why don’t we encourage play for adults?

Childish and nor mature Not a good way to spend your time - important stuff Looks irresponsible

What are some ways we can play in adulthood

Game nights Build a fort Play with children

Play in Adulthood

Rough and tumble play - diving, tug of war, kickball Ritual Play - board games, games with rules Imaginative play - colouring, storytelling, painting, crafting Body play - yoga, hiking, rollercoasters Object play - lego, jenge, snowball fights

Tripartitie model of subjective well-being

Life Satisfaction - cognitive Positive feelings - affective Negative feelings - affective