Using the VIA Survey as a Personality Assessment

Personality is the sum total of our psychological makeup and how we uniquely express ourselves in the world. It is comprised of our thoughts, feelings, traits, attitudes, habits, and behaviors.

Character, or character strengths, are one part of our personality. Character strengths are viewed as our positive personality in that they are core capacities for thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that can bring benefit to oneself and others.

Many of the major personality tests measure what is going wrong with people, such as psychopathology or serious problems (e.g., MMPI-2; MCMI-3; Rorschach inkblot test). Other personality tests assess neutral characteristics such as extraversion/introversion, feeling/thinking (e.g., Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Personality tests with good psychometrics (good validity and reliability) that measure what is going right with people are hard to come by. The VIA Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; VIA Survey) is one of these exceptions. The VIA Survey measures the individual’s strengths of character, such as love, teamwork, curiosity, gratitude, social intelligence, creativity, and self-regulation, which are valued in and of themselves. The VIA Survey has established good reliability and validity.

When individuals complete the VIA-Survey, they learn about who they really are at their core. They garner a closer understanding of this often-neglected aspect of their personality, which they can then tap into to help themselves and others.

 Click here to take the VIA Survey and determine your strengths of character.