Increasing character strength knowledge, interest, and skill: preliminary evidence for a collaborative and multimethod assessment procedure.

Introduction: The study's objective was to evaluate whether a qualitative, collaborative, and multimethod assessment protocol increased reports of character strength interest, knowledge, and perceived skills. Methods: Thirty-two participants completed three phases of data collection. Participants were first screened for well-being, which was used as an auxiliary covariate to order participants into experimental conditions. Selected participants were randomly assigned to a control or collaborative and multimethod assessment (card sort × qualitative interview) condition. Participants completed pre- and post-measures of strength interest, knowledge, and perceived skill. In the final phase, second phase participants were invited to report on strength-related outcomes 24 h post-administration using an online survey. Results: A series of 2 (Assessment Condition) × 3 (Time) mixed ANOVAs were analyzed. Results revealed a significant assessment condition by time interaction for strength knowledge and perceived skill. Participants in the collaborative and multimethod assessment condition reported higher strength knowledge and perceived skills compared to control participants. These effects were maintained for 24 h. Conclusion: The findings offer preliminary yet sizable support for using collaborative and multimethod assessment procedures to increase strength knowledge and perceived skill. Because of the qualitative, collaborative, and individualized nature of our assessment protocol, the findings offer a low-cost and contextually bound pathway to increase strength-based outcomes.

Suicide proneness in college students: relationships with gender, procrastination, and achievement motivation.

This study examined the relationships between 2 academic dispositions (i.e., procrastination and achievement motivation) and 2 indices of suicidal proneness in college women and men. The degree these 2 academic dispositions could predict unique variance in suicide proneness scores, above and beyond the influence of depression and self-esteem was also examined for each gender. Participants included 475 (336 women, 139 men) undergraduates from a southeastern university. For both genders, procrastination and achievement motivation were significantly correlated at the univarate level with the suicide proneness indices. However, for college women, but not men, procrastination significantly accounted for unique amounts of variance in both suicide indices above and beyond the influence of depression and self-esteem. Implications for suicide intervention efforts directed toward college women and men are offered.