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Examining the possibility of

Growth through adversity

Can we grow through adversity?

The theme of “strength from adversity” is appealing to many, and central to a number of cultural narratives. However, claims that adversity can in fact build character lacks robust empirical evidence, with many unanswered questions remaining. Do character strengths and virtues in fact grow following adversity and what are the rigorous methodological approaches for prospectively assessing potential growth? The Pathways to Character project aims to promote research that rigorously examines whether adversity, challenge, or failure can strengthen character, with a focus on the virtues of altruism, humility, gratitude, relatedness/empathy, spirituality and open-mindedness.

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Featured Projects

Identifying-Patterns

Identifying Patterns of Character Development During the Deployment Cycle: Antecedents and Consequences of Change

Can exposure to adversity lead to positive outcomes and personal growth? Despite the persistent narrative of post-traumatic growth and the development of conceptual models hypothesizing the conditions leading to such growth, research reliably demonstrating positive character development following adversity has proved elusive. Much past research is limited in the way it attempts to characterize character […]

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What-are-the

What are the Ingredients of Adversity? Examining Characteristics of Adverse Events as Predictors of Character Growth

Why do some events lead to growth in character strengths and others do not? Past research has addressed this question using a typological approach where adversities are grouped into different types or categories (e.g., daily stressor vs. clinical trauma). This approach has practical and theoretical limitations which we circumvent in this project by using a […]

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Partnered Research

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Research at ASU

Research at ASU will examine the nature of character growth following adversity, its concordance with informant reports, the processes through which growth manifests following adversity and individuals’ characteristics that may increase or decrease one’s likelihood of experiencing character growth following adversity.

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Research at WFU

Research at WFU will combine experience sampling methodology, self- and informant-ratings and qualitative interviews to examine the relationship between retrospective self-perceived growth, growth-relevant behaviors, identity and reputation to accurately access character change following challenge and failure.

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Meet the Team

Our Project Team is an interdisciplinary group of scholars, each of them well-respected in their field, who will be a part of the grant review process and serve as a board of advisors for the Pathways to Character Project.

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