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6 Virtues to Help You Lead a Happier, Healthier and More Fulfilled Life

In Character, Strengths, and Virtues (2004), Peterson and Seligman define six core virtues that are at the heart of positive psychology. The book describes each virtue according to specific character strengths, which the authors evaluate according to ten carefully chosen criteria. This newsletter will give a summary of each virtue.
Wisdom and knowledge represent broad cognitive abilities: both imply heightened awareness based on diverse experiences.
People who possess wisdom naturally exhibit certain types of behaviors, which include creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, and perspective.
Creativity involves the capacity to adapt in an original manner. Judgment and critical thinking comprise the character strength of open-mindedness. Being able to perceive difference in a fair manner allows for individual and institutional improvement.
Professing a love of learning reflects a conscious desire for self-improvement and a keen sense of where one needs improvement.
Maintaining perspective requires an accurate conception of reality, both objective and subjective. Perspective further entails the coordinated synthesis of knowledge and experience for the sake of progress, either for self or society.
Courage enables one to face difficulty with confidence. Regardless of whether this confidence comes from internal or external forces, the text presents four character strengths to delineate the virtue of courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, and vitality.
History abounds with examples of individuals whose fortitude led them to defend the good they saw in the world. As a corollary to the first strength, persistence entails a continued state of bravery. Being able to remain steadfast despite certain defeat requires a great deal of hard work and determination.
Integrity means standing up for what you believe is right regardless of the consequences. To fuel the fire beneath bravery one must possess vitality. Vitality disrupts inertia in the face of fear and goads people into action.
Humanity entails an incredible sensitivity to individual needs. As a singular disposition, humanity encompasses an array of interpersonal abilities and attributes.
People who possess humanity naturally exhibit certain strengths, which include love, kindness, and social intelligence. Love involves a mutual and shared commitment between individuals. Possessing a tendency for kindness entails being nice for the sake of being nice. Peterson and Seligman regard kindness as a fulfilling and distinctive trait separate from selfishness. Those who display social intelligence easily relate to others on a more meaningful level. Keenness often characterizes those individuals who display a deeper perception of varied emotional signals.

Justice compels one to act on behalf of the greater good. Differing from humanity more in degree than kind, justice as a virtue includes three character strengths: citizenship, fairness, and leadership.
Loyalty to a cause or an organization has much to do with citizenship. More so than mere allegiance, citizenship also calls to mind a sense of social responsibility. This impetus drives leaders to defend what they regard as right according to the people they represent.
Morality and fairness go hand-in-hand for members of most societies. While the definition of fairness may differ across and within cultures, one cannot contest the importance of fairness as it bears on group cohesion and teamwork.
Leadership requires both foresight and hindsight, as great leaders transform and magnify the strengths of others. Typical leaders possess an extraordinary motivation to guide others in a direction regarded by them as right.
Temperance enables one to decide wisely and exercise restraint appropriately. While modern society rarely honors individuals for exhibiting this virtue, temperance remains a hallmark of civil order and inner harmony.
People who possess temperance naturally display these strengths: forgiveness/mercy, humility/modesty, prudence and self-regulation. Forgiveness/mercy constitutes a genuine willingness to let bygones be bygones. Such forgiveness follows not from personal shortcomings (i.e., guilt or fear) or material benefits (i.e. bribery).
While many exceptional individuals learn to feign modesty to draw attention to themselves, only humility turns the spotlight away from the self. Those who exhibit prudence and self-regulation do so by consciously choosing “smarter” long-term goals over more immediate pleasures.
Transcendence entails appreciating beauty, gratitude, hope, humor, and spirituality.
Appreciation of beauty endows people with the capacity to acknowledge the emotional value of certain experiences or creations; the most apt description for this strength would be natural awe. As a type of transcendence, gratitude confers grace upon the grateful and gives to others a sense of self-worth. Those with hope in their hearts dream of infinite possibilities and act according to faith.
The last two strengths of transcendence represent different approaches to lightening the load of life. Humor lifts the soul in a playful and intermittent manner; on the other hand, spirituality elevates the soul through a coherent sense of purpose.
Peterson, C & Seligman, M. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: a handbook and classification. New York: Oxford University Press.