Pathways to peace: Character strengths for personal, relational, intragroup, and intergroup peace

ABSTRACT

Positive psychology has been largely distant from the substantial science of peace studies. This is unfortunate as the mutual synergy between these fields holds vast opportunity. Misconceptions and obstacles underlying this gap are highlighted, alongside counterpoints for each. The purpose is to lay a foundation for the integration of the science of character strengths and peace psychology, across levels of peace, namely personal/inner peace and relational peace with ramifications for intragroup and intergroup peace. To enhance the understanding of this integration, a convenience sample of 25,302 people was examined. Percentages of the participants’ perceived highest strengths used for building inner peace and relational peace and for managing political/religious conflict were calculated. Examples of respondents’ strategies for using strengths across levels of peace are offered. Among the various findings, perspective, kindness, and honesty were in the top 10 across all three levels. Limitations and future directions for this integration are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Peace psychology
• character strengths
• peace studies
• VIA classification
• VIA survey
• positive peace
• negative peace
• inner peace
• relational peace

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to peace psychology scientist, Daniel J. Christie, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University, for his hypotheses on some of the connections between character strengths and the different levels of peace, prior to data collection.

Disclosure statement

The author declares he is employed at the VIA Institute on Character which is a nonprofit organization with a mission of advancing the science/practice of character strengths, which are a core subject of this work.

Dedication

This paper is dedicated to Dr. Marty Seligman for his lifelong inspiring legacy characterized by tirelessly catalyzing tidal wave shifts in the field of psychology, innovating strong psychological science, and directly and indirectly impacting countless lives toward the better angels of their nature. Second, I dedicate this paper to two of the few people in positive psychology thus far who have prioritized peace in their work, who operate with both exuberance and gentleness – Dr. Helena Águeda Marujo and the late Dr. Luis Miguel Neto.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the author, upon reasonable request.