2014 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 39-49
The purpose of the present study is to increase the self-formation consciousness of first-year university students by focusing on psychological interventions that are based on individual character strengths (CS).
The methodology was as follows. During week one, the participants were asked to take an inventory of their CS after which they received individualized feedback regarding five of their CS in week two. In addition, they were requested to use one of these strengths in a new and different way every day for one week. The students were assigned to one of three groups: (a) the SS group (which used their top five CS in a new way; (b) the RS group (which randomized the CS in a new way; and (c) the control group (which included non-intervention). The self-formation consciousness scale was measured during the pre- and post-time periods for all of the participants. Among the SS group and the RS group, the individualߣs subjective feelings of their CS were assessed during the feedback and post-time periods.
Finally, the changes of the three groups during the intervention were analyzed using a 3×2 (condition×time) mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results show that the possibility seeking score did not significantly increase in each group. Conversely, in only the SS group, there was a significant increase in the effort to possibility score from the pre-test to the post-test. In addition, in only the SS group, there was significant increase in the subjective feelings of using strengths score from the feedback-test to the post-test. The findings suggest that psychological intervention using an individualߣs top-five CS was effective for increasing self-formation consciousness.
