Strengths
Inspired by the 24 character strengths, with public-domain questions.
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What it measures
In 2004 the psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman published a catalog of 24 strengths of character, things like curiosity, kindness, fairness, humor and hope, gathered from what moral and religious traditions around the world have praised. They sorted them under six virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence.
This test puts all 24 in order for you, from the strengths you use most to the ones you reach for least. It does not compare you with anyone else. Everyone has some of all 24, and the question is which ones are most yours.
When researchers measure the 24, they overlap, and a handful of broader groups account for much of the difference between people. So read your order as a sketch. The top five are the part worth acting on.
Three of the questions
- I try to respond with understanding when someone treats me badly.
- I don't hesitate to express an unpopular opinion.
- I stop to count my blessings.
What you get
- All 24 strengths in your order, from most used to least
- Your top five, each with how it shows up and what overusing it costs
- Your three least-used strengths, and why they are not weaknesses
- What a short measure like this can and cannot tell you
Where it comes from
The questions come from the International Personality Item Pool (ipip.ori.org), which places them in the public domain. They are keyed to the 24 character strengths described by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman in Character Strengths and Virtues (2004). The full IPIP set has 213 questions. We use three per strength on this site, 72 in all, so the test takes about 7 minutes instead of 20. Your scores rank your strengths against each other, not against other people.
Who owns the original
The 24-strength classification is the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues, and the VIA Survey belongs to the VIA Institute on Character. CliftonStrengths and StrengthsFinder are trademarks of Gallup and are a different model. We are not affiliated with either, and our test uses public-domain questions.