The science of mindfulness and character
Positive psychology has two natural bedfellows that, despite some overlapping routes and similar benefits when practiced, have grown up separately over the centuries. These are mindfulness meditation and strengths of character. Each has a number of misconceptions associated with it so we begin by clarifying terms and offering some brief research findings before delving into their integration.
There are many ways to define mindfulness. Each author, researcher, practitioner, and thought leader has their own take on it. The lack of a common, consensual definition poses problems for researchers and practitioners in terms of understanding what is being discussed, studied, and practiced. It is for this reason that a large group of mindfulness scientists gathered at the turn of the century to derive a consensual, operational definition. What emerged was a two-part definition for mindfulness (Bishop et al., 2004): Mindfulness involves the self-regulation of attention with an approach of curiosity, openness, and acceptance.
Ultimately, mindfulness is not about getting relaxed or achieving a particular state; rather, mindfulness refers to being present to what is happening in the unfolding moment to moment experience, without pre-conceptions or judgments. Mindfulness meditation practices and mindfulness-based programs have been associated with many positive outcomes. Meta-analyses have found clear evidence for the positive effects of meditation on well-being (Sedlmeier et al., 2012) and that meditation is beneficial for both clinical and non-clinical populations (Grossman et al., 2004).
Character is another term that has traditionally lacked a consensual definition. Character has typically been viewed over the decades in a narrow and myopic way – conceived of as a solitary construct such as honesty or integrity or characterized by a random selection of four or five qualities such as responsibility, respect, loyalty, and kindness. Studies of such groupings of character frequently found in character education programs have typically lacked scientific rigor (Berkowitz & Bier, 2007). A new science of character emerged at the turn of the century. In 2004, a common language emerged for understanding these positive aspects of our personality. This was catalyzed by a 3-year project involving 55 scientists, significant cross-cultural work, and extensive research finding 24 character strengths to be universal in human beings (Biswas-Diener, 2006; Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2006; Peterson & Seligman, 2004). This groundbreaking system of character strengths and virtues is known as the VIA Classification (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), which can be seen in detail in Table 1.1. The accompanying scientific measurement tool to assess these 24 strengths is widely known as the VIA Survey. (The word “VIA” in these instances was formerly an acronym for “values in action.”) The VIA Survey, a free online tool (accessible at www.viacharacter.org) has been taken by over three million people reaching every country around the globe. There are over 200 peer-reviewed publications on character strengths, the majority emerging in the last several years.
Character strengths are core, positive, trait-like capacities for thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that help us achieve our best potential and bring out the best in others. These character strengths have been found to correlate with many of the valued outcomes that humans pursue. Reviews and examples have been published elsewhere (Niemiec, 2013; Peterson, 2006; Peterson & Seligman, 2004) and include the link between creativity and posttraumatic growth (Forgeard, 2013), the connection between curiosity and intimacy (Kashdan et al., 2011), the alignment of humility with generosity (Exline & Hill, 2012), and the connection between the strength of appreciation of beauty and well-being and self-transcendence (Martinez-Marti et al., 2014), to name a recent few.
There is good reason to explore and deepen the synergy of these exciting positive psychology domains. Mindfulness has been found to provide greater exposure to our internal environment (Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007), to help overcome our blind spots in self-knowledge (Carlson, 2013), and to align our actual self (who we think we are) and our ideal self (who we would like to be; Ivtzan, Gardner, & Smailova, 2011). In practical terms, mindfulness helps people to look within, sift through the judgments, comparisons, distortions, etc., and clearly see who we really are (i.e., our authentic self; our core strengths).
Positive psychology – and its countless researchers and practitioners – strives to not only bring a more careful examination of what is best in people (e.g., positive traits, positive emotions, resilience) but also to use what is best to confront, manage, and/or transcend what is disordered, afflictive, or discomforting (e.g., human suffering, disease, conflict, problems). Mindfulness and character strengths each address these two points and it is suspected that the synergy between the two provides an additive benefit for helping humans to not only champion what is best in them but also to face and manage suffering.
