Identification of Personal Strengths for Personality Development

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
Identification of personal strengths can positively affect the process of personality
development. The paper is based upon the Reflective Best Self Exercise which has offered a
medium to identify the personality strength attributes and adapt measure to work on personal
development. This report comprises an exhaustive review of literature on positive psychology
and the Reflective Best Exercise. It further contains an analysis of the responses collected
from the 8 participants who have mentioned about the key strengths of my personality.
Finally the report comprises of a reflection with a visionary statement that highlights the
achieved learning outcome and the course of action to enhance personality development.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Literature Review:......................................................................................................................4
Method:......................................................................................................................................8
Findings:.....................................................................................................................................9
Summary Table:.......................................................................................................................11
Reflection:................................................................................................................................13
Vision statement deduced from reflection:..............................................................................13
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................13
References:...............................................................................................................................15
Appendix 1:..............................................................................................................................17
Appendix 2:..............................................................................................................................19

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Introduction:
According toSeligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2014), the process of self-assessment
offers individuals the ability to closely assess the underlying strength and weaknesses within
their individual personality trait. An endeavour to implement change within the personality
requires critical self-reflection. It should further be noted in this context that prior to
implementation of a change at the organizational level to acquire successful outcome, it is
extremely important to integrate the change at a personal level. This report has been written
based on the ‘Reflective Best -Self Exercise’. The purpose of this paper was to obtain positive
constructive feedback from eight people who are close to me in order to closely evaluate my
strengths. The methodology that was followed by me to obtain the response from the
individuals included mailing eight participants who happened to be my acquaintances. I had
emailed the 8 participants to introspect upon my strengths and mention three instances where
I had been the best version of myself. I chose the 8 participants as my close friends and
family members as they have known me the best and closely observed my transition through
different stages of life. As stated by Murk (2013), an individual relates best with their
immediate care providers and close acquaintances on account of sharing a major proportion
of the life span collectively and sharing compatible thought perspectives. This report intends
to conduct an exhaustive literature review on the Reflected Best Self Exercise and Strengths
so as to develop an in depth understanding about personality traits. Based upon the
understanding of the scholarly literatures, the paper discusses about the methodology
undertaken to collect responses from the participants and proceeds to analyse the findings
based upon thematic data analysis method. Upon reflecting upon my experience, I would like
to mention that the experience helped me develop a better understanding about my
personality trait.

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Literature Review:
According to Murk (2013), positive psychology deals with the understanding and
analysis of the core elements that add purpose to an individual’s life. The central idea of
positive psychology is to focus on flourishing and perceiving life beyond surviving (Carr
2013). It should be critically noted in this context that the domain of traditional psychology
has focused on impaired mental health issues and mental health dysfunction. Positive
psychology is relatively a new concept that emphasises upon recognizing the pre-existing
strengths in an individual so as to add a purpose of satisfaction and fulfilment in the life of
the individuals. It is important to acknowledge here that positive psychology starkly differs
from abnormal psychology and must not be considered as a substitute for abnormal
psychology. In the words of Bolier et al. (2013), the field of positive psychology intends to
perceive life based upon three notions that include, identifying the genuine link between the
positive and negative elements in life and acknowledging that the absence of problems is not
equivalent to having led a fancy life. In addition to this, the third notion suggests that that a
good life requires a meaningful definition and must not be confused with the compliance to
an ideal theory.
According to Steve (2016), positive psychology intends to focus on the perception of
emotions in a meaningful manner and does not relate to momentary warm feelings and
fleeting happiness. As stated bySelingman (2014), there are three distinct paths that lead to
happiness. These include, leading a pleasant life which is synonymous to perceiving life as a
fancy fairy tale. The second includes leading a good life which focuses on the individual
strengths that help in leading a life of comfort. The third includes, leading a meaningful life
that helps in achieving a higher purpose in life. As suggested by Waterman (2013),
identification of an individual’s character strengths is an integral aspect that helps in defining
the purpose of a meaningful life. It should be noted here that psychologists describe character

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as a cumulative unit of thoughts, feelings, behaviour and self-control that are identified and
encourages across cultures of values that they inculcate within people and within the society.
Positive psychology researchers often count on the practical application so as to assist
individuals and organizations in critically identifying their strengths and use the identified
strengths to enhance and maintain their status of wellbeing (Kristjánsson 2013). Positive
psychologists mention that the character strengths exist on the continuum for positive
character traits that are believed to exist in degrees in place of all or nothing categories.
Positive psychology offers a contrasting approach to that of the DSM manual in the sense that
DSM focuses on identifying the mental health disorders and aims at evaluating recovery
options (Meyers et al. 2013). On the other hand, positive psychology focuses on initiating
psychological wellness. Research studies show that human strengths can typically act as
buffers that can particularly act against mental health disorders. The statement can be backed
with a practical example that suggests that harbouring optimistic thoughts could potentially
prevent the chances of becoming depressed (Casellas et al. 2014). Also, according to Wong
(2013), the absence of a strength based personality attribute could indicate the possibility of
acquiring a psychopathology. In this regard, it should be acknowledged that the positive
psychology therapists such as counsellor, psychotherapists or life-coaches make use of
strength based techniques in order to reinforce optimism and broaden the perspective of the
lives of people. Evidence based studies suggest that grouping the broad 24 human personality
traits under four important classes of social, intellectual, temperance and transcendence
themes could help in addressing and generalizing all the 24 generalized traits. However, it
should also be noted that excessive use of the 24 traits could lead to a liability (Wong 2013).
The 24 traits include, perseverance, integrity, love, kindness, zest, gratitude, social
intelligence, appreciation of beauty and excellence, optimism, connection, humour, self-
control, humility, prudence, leadership, forgiveness, fairness, teamwork, love of learning,