McKensie MacGrath

Professor Ratliff

UH-208 Scholar’s Life After Graduation

3/4/2021

Book Review: The Power of Character Strengths

The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality is an

official guide from the VIA Institute on Character written by Dr. Ryan Niemiec and Dr. Robert

McGrath. Dr. Ryan Niemiec is the education director at the VIA Institute on Character, an

adjunct professor at Xavier University, and an award-winning psychologist. Dr. Robert McGrath

is a professor in and director of Fairleigh’s Dickinson University’s Department of Psychology

and is a Senior Scientist at the VIA Institute. This book, as stated by the authors, “is a book about

what is best within you—your many strengths of character.” The authors claim that this book is

for people who want to learn more about their character in order to make their lives better. In this

review, I will provide a brief summary of the content and structure of the book, and critically

evaluate its usability and research basis.

This character strengths guide is based on research sponsored by the VIA Institute to

discover the central character strengths in people. Through this research, twenty-four central

character strengths were identified. Some examples of these strengths are creativity, zest, social

intelligence, fairness, prudence, and spirituality. Each of these character strengths falls under a

larger category, called virtues. There are six virtues, which are wisdom, courage, humanity,

justice, temperance, and transcendence. The authors explain that the character strengths are ways

to achieve their corresponding virtue. The book is organized in a fairly simple way. The

introduction presents the explanations of classifications of character strengths and virtues, why

you should care your character strengths, and how to start understanding and using your
character strengths. The second section is entitled “Exploring the 24 Character Strengths,” in

which the authors explain what is important to know about each strength, why it is valuable, and

how to ignite the strength. The third section introduces “Strength Builder,” which is a four-step

program to develop and appreciate your character strengths.

As someone who took the recommended VIA Survey (a survey to find your character

strengths and weaknesses), I think that the large amount of information presented in this book

would be difficult to get through without attaching a personal significance to it. By this I mean

that anyone who wants to read this book should take the survey beforehand to find the

information that pertains to yourself. With that being said, I would rate The Power of Character

Strengths as high in terms of its usability. The authors state, “the best thing you can do at this

point is to give closest attention to your highest strengths, your signature strengths.” At first, I

was disappointed in this statement. To me, it makes more sense to work on your weaknesses.

However, after reading through their explanation and how the guide is set up, I agreed with this.

The authors explain that each person’s signature strengths are the closest to “the real you,” so

they will have the biggest impact if they are improved upon.

I found the “Taking Action” part of each character strength description in the second part

to be the most useful aspect of the book. In this section, the authors detail how to use a character

strength in different situations, like in relationships and at work. For example, for the honesty

character strength in relationships, the authors recommend contacting “a family member or

friend whom you have told a ‘partial’ truth and give them the complete details.” I think that

providing the information on why it is important to use these strengths and then including

manageable actions that people can complete makes this a useful guide to bettering oneself.
 Despite the fact that I found this guide to be useful, I did have one issue with it. A main

component to this book is that the information included is based on research. This can be seen

throughout the book when the authors make obscure references to studies. For example, the

authors state that “The VIA Classification was the result of several years of research” and

“Research studies have also shown that the character strengths help us manage problems more

effectively.” However, no information about the studies is included and no references to these

studies are in the book. The reference section included references to books (which may contain

the information on the studies), but no peer-reviewed research articles are included in this

section. As a psychology major, I know how important it is to cite your sources. Psychological

studies’ results are known to be misinterpreted and exaggerated when it is to someone’s benefit.

So, not including this information makes me a little wary to fully believe the authors’ claims.

Although, the authors themselves do seem reputable, it would be to their benefit to cite their

sources.

The authors wrote, “…all of us have blind spots in our self-understanding—there is no

perfectly aware person.” It was this statement that inspired me to want to improve myself

through knowing myself better. Dr. Ryan Niemiec and Dr. Robert McGrath wrote a

comprehensive and usable guide to do just that. I would recommend this book to anyone who

wants to enhance their relationships, professional development, and understanding of

themselves. I was shocked when I got my signature strength, but once I read about what it was

and how to use it, I realized that I really had been using this part of my character all along. I

believe that many other readers would also be surprised to learn their signature strength. I think

that using this guide will take some dedication to the process, but that doing so would have many

benefits.
 References

Niemiec, Ryan M., and Robert E. McGrath. The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and

Ignite Your Positive Personality. VIA Institute on Character, 2019.