Character strengths of Iranian adolescents

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 1. Ph.D. of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

2 2. Professor, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Professor, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

4 Associate Professor, Family Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Aim: Character strengths are one of the important issues in positive youth development. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the special character strengths of Iranian adolescents. Method: The statistical population of the study consisted of child and adolescent’s specialists and adolescents of Tehran city who were entered this study non-randomly and voluntarily. The specialist group (including psychologists, counselors, and teachers) was ten people. Adolescents consisted of two groups of nine-grade students (seven girls, six boys, M age:14/5 years old). Data were analyzed using the content analysis method (concept-driven). Results: Specialists uttered positive traits such as “learning fast”, “loyalty”, and “keeping secrets” as Iranian adolescents’ specific character strengths. In the adolescents' group “purity”, “qeirat/gheirat”, and “chastity” were declared as special strengths of Iranian youths. Conclusion: Characteristics mentioned by specialists can’t be considered as character strengths because they don’t have the ten criteria of the character strength but characteristics mentioned by adolescents such as modesty/inhibition, zeal, and chastity have some of these criteria and the addition of these traits to the 24 character strengths could be offered. These findings were discussed in the context of Iranian culture.

Keywords

References

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