Roundtable Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Character Strengths As In Communal Perspective: An Analysis On The Malleability Of Character Among Japanese In A Post-3.11 World (#229)

Kaori Uno 1 , Yosuke Sato 1 , Yoko Sawamiya 1
  1. University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

By making a comprehensive review as well as a replication of the study conducted by Peterson and Seligman in 2003 entitled Character Strengths Before and After September 11, the goal of this presentation is to explore a possibility of promoting a research on the concept of character strengths from a communal perspective rather than merely dealing with an individual level as was predominant in earlier stage of research.  Our research team focused on the immediate changes by comparing VIA-IS scores before March 11, 2011, the date of the Great East Japan Earthquake, with those obtained 1 month after March 11 and with those obtained 2 months after March 11, 2011.  Our intent was to take into consideration only changes that were evident in both comparisons.  We computed separate one-way multivariate analyses of variance with time period (pre-3.11 vs. 1 month or 2 months post-3.11) as two-level between-subjects factor and the 24 scale scores as dependent variables.  The overall F was significant at pre-3.11 vs. 2 months post-3.11, which confirms that there were communal changes in the immediate wake of the earthquake and tsunami, F(1, 735) = 2.52, p < .001, for 2 months after March 11.