Values in Action Classification of Character Strengths
Peterson, C. & Seligman, M. E. P. · 2004
Also known as: VIA-IS · Character Strengths
The Values in Action (VIA) Classification identifies 24 character strengths organized under six broad virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Developed as the positive psychology counterpart to the DSM, it resulted from a three-year project involving 55 social scientists who reviewed philosophical, religious, and psychological writings spanning 2,500 years. The VIA Survey has been completed by millions of people worldwide and research consistently links strengths like hope, zest, gratitude, love, and curiosity to life satisfaction.
Classification of 24 character strengths organized under 6 core virtues, developed as a positive-psychology counterpart to clinical diagnostic taxonomies.
- Source:
- Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification.
Historical Context
The VIA Classification emerged from Martin Seligman's founding of positive psychology as a formal discipline in 2000, alongside Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Seligman and Christopher Peterson led a systematic review of virtue traditions across philosophy, theology, and psychology spanning 2,500 years to identify universally valued character strengths. The 2004 handbook 'Character Strengths and Virtues' was explicitly designed as a positive counterpart to the DSM's classification of mental disorders, shifting scientific attention from deficits to strengths.
Constructs
No constructs documented yet.
Instruments
No instruments built on this theory yet.
Tests built on this theory
No tests built on this theory yet.
Practical Applications
The VIA Classification is widely used in coaching, therapy, and education to help individuals identify and leverage their signature strengths for greater well-being and performance. Strengths-based interventions have shown significant effects on well-being and reduced depression in clinical and non-clinical populations. The framework is also applied in organizational development, school counseling programs, and community health interventions across diverse cultural contexts.
How It's Measured
The 24 strengths were identified through expert review of philosophical, religious, and psychological traditions rather than through empirical factor analysis, which partly explains the mismatch between the theoretical six-virtue structure and empirical factor solutions.
Critiques & Limitations
The most persistent criticism concerns the factor structure: although 24 strengths are mapped to six virtues, empirical factor analyses typically recover three to five factors rather than the proposed six-virtue structure, undermining the theoretical foundation. The VIA Survey has been criticized for idiomatic item wording that threatens cross-cultural translatability and contributes to inconsistent factor-analytic results across language adaptations. Several strengths -- such as zest, social intelligence, fairness, hope, and humor -- show relatively low or diffuse factor loadings, raising questions about their distinctiveness as separate constructs.
Key Publications
- Peterson, C. & Seligman, M. E. P.. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification.
- Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P.. (2004). Strengths of Character and Well-Being. 10.1521/jscp.23.5.603.50748
- Niemiec, R. M.. (2013). VIA Character Strengths: Research and Practice (The First 10 Years). 10.1007/978-94-007-4611-4_2
- McGrath, R. E.. (2015). Character Strengths in 75 Nations: An Update. 10.1080/17439760.2014.888580
- Seligman, M. E. P. & Csikszentmihalyi, M.. (2000). Positive Psychology: An Introduction. 10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5