Positive

Psychology

Lecture 3: Measures of Strengths and Positive Outcome

in Cultural Context
How would you measure
success in life?

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 Classifications and Measures of
Strengths
• Menninger suggested development of new
diagnostic system
• Better understanding of weaknesses than
strengths
• Classifications of strengths

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 Classifications and Measures of
Strengths
• 3 Questionnaires:
– Gallup’s Clifton StrengthsFinder
– Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA)
– The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets

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The Search Institute’s 40
Developmental Assets

www.search-institute.org.
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 The Search Institute’s 40
Developmental Assets
• What protects children from today’s problems?
• 156-item Survey
• Describes respondent’s:
– 40 Developmental Assets
– 8 thriving indicators
– 5 developmental deficits
– 24 risk-taking behaviors

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 The Search Institute’s 40
Developmental Assets
• 20 external and 20 internal assets
• External asset categories:
– Support
– Empowerment
– Boundaries and Expectations
– Constructive Use of Time

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 The Search Institute’s 40
Developmental Assets
• Internal asset categories:
– Commitment to Learning
– Positive Values
– Social Competencies
– Positive Identity

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The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets
Case Example Adam

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The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets
Case Example Adam

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The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets
Case Example Adam

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The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets
Case Example Adam

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The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets
Case Example Adam

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The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets
Case Example Adam

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 The Search Institute’s 40
Developmental Assets
• What are Adam’s developmental assets?
• What are Adam’s strengths?

Use The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental

Assets to analyze Adam’s assets and strengths.

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 The Role of Culture in Developing
Strengths and Living Well
• Gender, race, ethnicity, religion influence what people value

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 The Role of Culture in Developing
Strengths and Living Well
• Definitions of strengths vary across different cultural groups
• Values such as hope and courage may not mean the same thing across
cultures
• Example:
– Happiness: in the US associated with personal achievement and other
individual-related contributing factors. Eastern individuals from China or Japan
more commonly reference harmony and aspects related to their social
spheres as contributing heavily to their happiness (Uchida, Norasakkunkit, &
Kitayama, 2004)
– Wisdom: in the US perceived as cognitive construct, other groups define it as
both affective and cognitive (Benedikovičová & Ardelt, 2008; Yang, 2008)
– Hope: in the US correlates strongly with life satisfaction, optimism, and other
beneficial traits (Snyder et al., 1991), in other groups these links are less
strong or reversed (Chang & Banks, 2007)

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 Issues of Equivalence in Using
Measures of Psychological Strength
• Western framework
• Conceptual equivalence:
– Construct equivalence (e.g. Understanding of Wisdom –
cognitive or emotional ?)
– Linguistic equivalence (procedure of translation and back-
translation)
– Metric equivalence (avoidance of extreme statements in
some cultures)

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Poll: Where does your hope come
from?
Poll: Where does your hope come
from?
• Raise both hands:
– Head: the thinking part of you
– Heart: the love you have for and receive from
others
– The Holy: your spiritual life
How do cultural identities provides
sources of strength for different
individuals?
• Identify three cultural facets:
– Race, gender, religion
– ???
• Which cultural strengths might be derived
from membership in these groups?
 Putting Positive Psychology in a
Cultural Context
• Examining the Equivalence of the “Positives”
to Determine What Works
• Cross-cultural and multicultural research
• Quantitative and qualitative studies
– Optimism and pessimism studies
– Differences in benefits from coping strategies

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Putting Positive Psychology in a Cultural
Context
• Using Caution in Measuring “Universal”
Strengths
• Traits and characteristics defined differently
• Similarities are not what they appear to be
• Must be aware of biases

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Putting Positive Psychology in a Cultural
Context

• Multicultural Mindset as a Strength

• There are no universal strengths
• Lack of non-Western research

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