Character Strengths in Israel

Abstract

The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) has been extensively used to assess character strengths. We adapted a Hebrew translation and analyzed its psychometric properties and associations with life satisfaction, personality traits, and positive and negative affect, and examined its factorial structure in 635 Israeli adults. Results indicated the following: (1) All 24 subscales had satisfactory reliabilities (αs > .72). (2) Hope, gratitude, vitality, curiosity, and love had the highest associations with life satisfaction, whereas modesty, appreciation of beauty, fairness, humor and honesty, had the lowest. (3) Women scored higher than men on love, appreciation of beauty and gratitude, with men scoring higher on creativity. (4) A five-dimensional model best represented the factorial structure. Most findings replicated previous findings in other countries, supporting the use of the Hebrew version.