Character strength traits, states, and emotional well-being: A daily diary study

Objective

Does whole trait theory work for character strengths? This study examines the daily within- and between-person variability of the manifestations of positively valued lower-order personality characteristics, namely character strengths, their convergence with trait character strengths, and their relationships to daily measures of affect.

Background

Manifestations of personality traits vary both between- and within people. So far, research has focused on between-person differences in character strengths, while within-person differences have been neglected.

Methods

German-speaking participants (N = 199, 84.3% women; mean age = 26.0 years) participated in a two-week daily diary study. They completed a baseline measure of character strength traits and daily measures of character strength states and positive and negative affect.

Results

Results suggested that character strength traits converged well with aggregated states. Further, we observed high within-person variability in most character strengths. The trait-state convergence and the amount of within-person variability were predicted by whether the character strengths were rather phasic (i.e., more dependent on situational characteristics) or rather tonic (i.e., less dependent on situational characteristics). Higher within-person variability in character strengths was related to trait levels of perspective, honesty, social intelligence, and fairness. Regarding relationships between character strengths and affect, within-person associations were widely parallel to previously reported between-person associations and largely independent of trait levels of character strengths.

Conclusion

These findings inform research on whole trait theory and character–strengths-based interventions.