Paragons of character—Character strengths and well-being of moral, creative, and religious exemplars

IF 5 1区心理学 Q1 Psychology

Journal of Personality Pub Date : 2023-11-21 DOI:10.1111/jopy.12907

Fabian Gander, Lisa Wagner, Valentina Vylobkova, André Kretzschmar, Willibald Ruch

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

Which traits best describe individuals who are recognized as exemplary in different domains? And can self-rated positively valued personality traits distinguish such individuals from the general population?

Background

The study of exemplary individuals’ personality traits traditionally focused on general and broad traits. Using character strengths, which are narrower and designed to describe desirable behavior, could provide new insights.

Method

In this study, we examined 204 outstanding individuals—exemplars who received or were nominated for a public award recognizing their exemplary behavior (e.g., a Carnegie Rescuers Award; n = 119), individuals holding a patent (n = 62), and individuals living in a religious order (n = 23). We compared these exemplars to comparison samples matched based on demographic variables. All participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing character strengths and well-being (e.g., satisfaction with life).

Results

Results showed that the three groups of exemplars differed meaningfully in their character strengths and well-being from the matched comparison groups. Compared with matched counterparts, moral exemplars scored higher on the strengths related to the virtues of courage, humanity, and justice as well as the character strength of humility, creative exemplars scored higher on the character strengths of creativity and honesty, and religious exemplars scored higher on gratitude and spirituality.

Conclusion

Overall, our findings suggest that character strengths are a useful framework for studying exemplary behavior.

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性格的典范-性格的力量和幸福的道德，创造性和宗教的典范。

目的:哪些特征最适合描述在不同领域被公认为典范的个人?自我评价的积极人格特征能将这些人与一般人群区分开来吗?背景:传统上对模范个体人格特征的研究主要集中在一般特征和广义特征上。使用狭义的、用来描述理想行为的性格优势，可以提供新的见解。方法:在本研究中，我们调查了204名获得或被提名为表彰其模范行为的公共奖项的杰出个人榜样(例如，卡内基救援者奖;N = 119)，持有专利的个人(N = 62)，以及生活在宗教秩序中的个人(N = 23)。我们将这些样本与基于人口变量匹配的比较样本进行了比较。所有参与者都完成了自我报告问卷，评估性格优势和幸福感(如对生活的满意度)。结果:结果显示，三组被试在性格优势和幸福感方面与匹配对照组存在显著差异。与同类相比，道德楷模在勇气、人性、正义以及谦逊的品格方面得分更高，创造性楷模在创造力和诚实的品格方面得分更高，宗教楷模在感恩和灵性方面得分更高。结论:总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，性格优势是研究模范行为的一个有用的框架。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Personality PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

6.00%

发文量

100

期刊介绍： Journal of Personality publishes scientific investigations in the field of personality. It focuses particularly on personality and behavior dynamics, personality development, and individual differences in the cognitive, affective, and interpersonal domains. The journal reflects and stimulates interest in the growth of new theoretical and methodological approaches in personality psychology.