The “anti-DSM”, Diagnostic Manual Of The 24 Human Strengths

The “anti-DSM” movement represents the bet made by positive psychology in favor of human virtues and strengths. This perspective intends to highlight what makes us happy and counteract the tendency to classify and study only mental disorders.

Thus, while the DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the VIA (Values ​​in Action, or Values ​​in Action, in Portuguese) intends to  make a classification of human strengths by extracting patterns and proposing a common lexicon  that will help us to cross-culturally understand human virtues and strengths.

In addition, like the DSM, the VIA manual also offers assessment strategies and questionnaires that help investigators assess six virtues that are divided into 24 strengths. On this page we can take the test in English after registration.

The 24 human strengths, the key to our happiness

Although we have not named the creators of this proposal, they are psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman. They suggest the existence of 6 virtues through which they articulate until arriving at 24 human strengths. Let’s see what they are:

• Common sense and knowledge:
  • Curiosity or, which is the same thing, being interested in what surrounds us.
  • Love for knowledge.
  • Critical judgment and a mind willing to learn.
  • Creativity.
  • Perspective (criterion).
• Courage as overcoming obstacles:
  • Courage.
  • Perseverance.
  • Integrity and honesty.
  • Vitality (desire and enthusiasm).
• Love:
  • Kindness.
  • Intimate bond.
  • Social intelligence.
• Justice:
  • Citizenship and teamwork.
  • Justice and equity.
  • Leadership.
• Temperament characteristics:
  • Humility.
  • Self control.
  • Prudence and caution.
  • Forgiveness and compassion.
• Transcendence:
  • Appreciation of beauty.
  • Fear and amazement.
  • Gratitude.
  • Hope and optimism.
  • Ability to play and humor.
  • Spirituality and goals.

The importance of highlighting the positive in education

Without falling into an excess of optimism, it is understood that the more we cultivate these virtues and strengths, the closer we will be to self-fulfillment and our ability to be happy. This opens up many paths for us to advance when it comes to optimizing the training and education we offer to children and adults in our society.

Highlighting this helps us to promote the development of these personal, emotional, cognitive and behavioral skills. A film that helps us understand the importance of highlighting human strengths is “Dead Poets Society“.

It can be said that less rigidity and more flexibility, learning to take perspective, having an open mind and being able to understand and learn by being aware and evaluating each possibility is essential to ensure strong people capable of dealing with the world.

Because, as highlighted, education must have the capacity to promote positive changes in people and improve skills at all levels, opening paths and highlighting what is especially relevant for our development as beings in the world.

In other words,  by promoting the development of human strengths, we are helping children to be happy,  to be more self-assured and to be able to make their own decisions. However, even today there is a great deficiency when it comes to personalizing education and learning in schools.

This is largely due to the massification of classrooms that makes this task impossible, but there is  also a point of ignorance and “inertia” that exhausts the few possibilities that exist in a conventional school.

Einstein’s phrase that says:

Let’s write this down and start exploring each of our strengths.