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Signature strengths: what they are, how to find yours

Updated

Signature strengths are your top character strengths, the ones that feel most like the real you. In Martin Seligman's research, they were the top five results of a character strengths survey. You can find yours with the free VIA Survey, then check them against what your friends see.

Where the idea comes from

Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman classified 24 character strengths under six virtues in 2004 (the full list). In their 2005 study, people took the strengths survey online and received feedback on their top five, which the researchers called their "signature" strengths.

How to find yours

  1. Take the VIA Survey. Free, 96 questions, 10 to 15 minutes. Note your top five.
  2. Ask three to five friends for one moment when you were at your best.
  3. Keep the overlap. A strength in your top five that also shows up in your friends' stories is a signature strength you can trust.

The "signature strengths test"

There is no separate test: people searching for Seligman's signature strengths test usually mean the VIA Survey of Character Strengths. The VIA Institute offers it free on its site; Authentic Happiness, the University of Pennsylvania site created for Seligman's book of the same name, offers it too, with an account.

What to do with them

Use one in a new way every day for a week. In the 2005 study, that exercise made people happier for up to six months, while only learning their top five had no lasting effect (ideas for each strength).

Add a friend's first name and get a link to text them. Each friend shares a moment, no app or sign-up. You see the strengths that come back. Free.

Ask my friends

Questions

What are signature strengths?

Your top character strengths, the ones that feel most like you. In Martin Seligman's research, they were the top five results of a character strengths survey.

How many signature strengths do you have?

There's no fixed number. The 2005 study by Seligman and colleagues used each person's top five.

What is the signature strengths test?

Usually the VIA Survey of Character Strengths: 96 questions, free on the VIA Institute's site, also offered with an account on the University of Pennsylvania's Authentic Happiness site.

Sources