Assessment of character strengths and the application of Positive Psychology principles to older adults: Identifying opportunities to thrive after 65

Positive Psychology is the “scientific study of the virtues and strengths … that enable individuals … to thrive”. This project explored Positive Psychology concepts with 131 older adults. Over half of the respondents were women (56%) and were married (54%) with post high school education (97%). When asked to rank the importance of each of the six virtues identified by positive psychologists, the most highly ranked were wisdom/knowledge and humanity; these virtues received 43% and 33% of the #1 rankings, respectively. Within each of those virtues, respondents ranked each of three character strengths. The most important character strengths were open-mindedness and kindness, ranked #1 within their virtue by 63% and 51%, respectively. Between 35% and 42% of participants were very interested in improving the following strengths: appreciation of beauty/excellence, fairness, humor, love of learning, kindness, and love. In terms of components of happiness, respondents indicated how happy they were by agreeing/disagreeing with statements using a scale that ranged from 1 = “Not like me at all” to 5 = “Very much like me”. Respondents were happiest in terms of enjoyment (21% had an average score = 4 - 5), and least happy in terms of engagement (8% had an average score = 4 - 5). The finding that there are a number of strengths that participants would like to improve, combined with the low happiness score on engagement, will serve as a basis for identifying opportunities that can help older adults achieve the highest possible level of positive aging.