The Relationship Among Personality Traits, Character Strengths, and Life Satisfaction in College Students

Utilizing a sample of college students who completed the Adolescent Personal Style Inventory for College Students (Lounsbury & Gibson, 2004), the VIA Classification of Strengths (Peter, Park, & Seligman, 2004), and a Quality of Life Scale, specific relations between the Big Five Factor Model personality traits, character strengths, and life satisfaction in college students were hypothesized and examined. With the exception of the Big Five trait, Conscientiousness, all of the hypothesized correlations were found to be significant at the .05 level. This study also investigated whether the character strengths model and the Big Five model were significant predictors of life satisfaction in college students. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the character strengths model added validity above and beyond the Big Five in predicting life satisfaction in college students. Results are discussed in terms of implications for clinical aspects ( e.g. treatment modalities) in the field of psychology.