What is the VIA Survey of Character Strengths?

What does the VIA Survey measure?

The VIA Survey, also called the VIA Inventory of Strengths, is a self-report questionnaire built from the classification Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman published as a handbook of character (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). It measures 24 positively valued ways of thinking, feeling and acting, sorted under six broad virtues: wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence.

Each strength, from curiosity and honesty to kindness, fairness, gratitude and hope, is scored from a set of statements rated on how much they sound like you. The virtues are organising headings rather than measured factors: the classification was assembled by reading across philosophical, religious and educational traditions for qualities that recur almost everywhere, not by factor analysis. The full list, grouped under its virtue, is set out in the character strengths test guide. Every strength on the list is desirable, so the survey is a ranking of what is most and least characteristic of you, not a scale from a bad end to a good one.

What does a VIA Survey result look like?

The output is an order, not a label or a category. You rate a set of statements, the answers for each strength are averaged, and the 24 strengths are lined up from most to least like you. There is no pass or fail line and no single overall score.

The handful at the top are usually called your signature strengths. These feel like you rather than like effort, and you would notice missing them if you had to go a week without using them.

Because the ranking is within a person rather than against other people, two people can each have honesty as a signature strength while scoring quite differently on it in absolute terms. What the survey tells you most reliably is the shape of your own profile, not how you compare with everyone else who has taken it.

Do character strengths predict life satisfaction?

Some more than others. A large study using the values-in-action inventory with 5,299 adults across three internet samples found that hope, zest, gratitude, love and curiosity were consistently and robustly associated with how satisfied people were with their lives (Park, Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Modesty and the more intellectual strengths, appreciation of beauty, creativity, judgment and love of learning, were only weakly associated with it.

The relationship ran in one direction throughout: more of a strength was never linked to less life satisfaction (Park, Peterson & Seligman, 2004). The data were cross-sectional and self-reported, so the finding says where satisfaction and strengths travel together, not that raising one causes the other to rise. A signature strength high on this short list is a reasonable place to look first; one low on it just means your profile leans elsewhere.

Are the same strengths valued across countries?

Broadly, yes. An analysis of more than a million people who completed the values-in-action inventory online between 2002 and 2012, covering 75 nations, found the relative order of the 24 strengths was substantially similar from country to country (McGrath, 2015). Honesty, fairness, kindness, judgment and curiosity were consistently the most highly endorsed; self-regulation, modesty, prudence and spirituality the least.

The author flags that the samples were self-selected, people who chose to take a survey online, so this is stronger evidence about the shape of the ordering than about national averages (McGrath, 2015). Even so, a broadly consistent order across 75 nations supports one of the ideas the classification was built on: that these qualities are recognised across cultures rather than specific to one.

Does using your strengths in new ways make a difference?

A qualified yes. A randomised, placebo-controlled internet study assigned people to one of five brief exercises or a control task; one exercise asked people to identify their top strengths and put one of them to work in a new way. Three of the five exercises lastingly raised happiness and eased low mood compared with the control, while two did not (Seligman et al., 2005).

A meta-analysis pooled 29 effect sizes from 14 articles: life satisfaction rose (Hedges g = 0.42), positive affect rose (g = 0.32), and low mood eased (g = 0.21) (Schutte & Malouff, 2019). Small to moderate effects from a fairly small literature, not a transformation.

A ranking is more useful as a short list of levers than as a portrait to admire: naming a signature strength costs nothing, putting it to work somewhere new is what the evidence supports. What is character? and strengths and weaknesses go further into how a profile like this is best read.

What is free, and how does the VIA Survey compare with the Wellington Membership?

At the time of writing, the VIA Survey itself is free and produces the full ranking of your 24 strengths. More detailed reports beyond the plain ranking are available to buy from the organisation that publishes it, at pricing that organisation sets.

Wellington is a science-based personality assessment from Therabot Labs LLC. It measures personality as continuous traits, built on the Big Five and HEXACO models, and writes the results back as a personal report rather than a type.

The free Snapshot measures six broad dimensions in 60 questions and does not score character strengths. The Wellington Membership adds the Portrait, 336 questions across 4 chapters, the last devoted to character. It scores all 24 strengths, grouped under their virtue, alongside the Big Five facets, for 90 traits altogether. Every trait, including each strength, is reported as a percentile against the reference sample. The three bands (Quiet below the 30th percentile, Balanced to the 70th, High above) and the Portrait names exist to make the result easier to talk about; the percentile is the measurement, and it is always shown alongside. Those norms are provisional while the norming sample is completed. Wellington is a wellness tool for reflection, not a medical or psychological diagnosis, and it does not replace care from a qualified professional. It is not designed for hiring, and you can export or delete your data at any time.

Questions people ask

Is the VIA Survey free?

Yes, at the time of writing the survey itself is free and gives you the full ranking of the 24 character strengths. More detailed reports beyond the plain ranking are available to buy from the organisation that publishes it, at pricing that organisation sets.

What is a signature strength?

One of the handful at the top of your own ranking. These feel like you rather than like effort, and a small body of research links five of them most consistently with life satisfaction: hope, zest, gratitude, love and curiosity (Park, Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

How long does the VIA Survey take?

It is a self-report questionnaire of statements about yourself, rated on how accurately they describe you, and most people work through it in a single sitting. The length depends on which version you are given. There is no time limit and no pass mark.

Is the VIA Survey scientifically grounded?

The classification behind it was published as a book by Oxford University Press and the American Psychological Association (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), and the survey has been used in samples of over a million respondents across 75 nations (McGrath, 2015). That is a substantial evidence base for a self-report instrument, which still reflects how you see yourself rather than an outside view.

Does Wellington use the VIA Survey?

Wellington's membership scores all 24 strengths from the same classification (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) using its own statements, not the VIA Survey itself, and reports each as a percentile with a written page for your band rather than a plain ranking. The free Snapshot covers six broad dimensions only; strengths arrive with the membership.