Marco Weber

Medical School Hamburg | MSH · Department of Psychology

The present study was designed to examine the relationships between students' character strengths, school-related affect, positive school functioning (i.e., motivation to learn, interest, and engagement at class), and school achievement following the ''engine model of well-being'' that is focusing on inputs (e.g., personality traits), processes (e....

We examined relations between US early adolescents’ major personality traits and global life satisfaction (LS) and satisfaction in five specific domains (i.e., family, friends, school, self, living environment). A sample of 344 7th graders completed the Adolescent Personal Style Inventory (Lounsbury et al., 2003), which assesses the Big Five traits...

This brief overview focuses on the relations between character strengths and subjective well-being in children and adolescents. The VIA classification of good character encompasses 24 character strengths, positive personality traits that contribute to a good life, which includes but is not limited to satisfaction, happiness, and success. Subjective...

This study is embedded in the theoretical framework of the engine model of positive schooling. Accordingly, relations were investigated between students’ endogenous input variables (i.e., character strengths), process variables (i.e., school satisfaction, enjoyment of learning, and academic self-efficacy), and school achievement as an outcome varia...

This chapter begins with a description of the tenets of hope theory and then addresses the importance of hope during adolescence from a developmental perspective. Next, two accompanying instruments for measuring hope in adults and adolescents, the Adult Hope Scale and the Children’s Hope Scale, are described. Then the chapter summarizes the researc...

The chapter at hand consists of four major subsections. First, the chapter starts with a brief description of the relevant countries of Western Europe (i.e., Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland) with respect to general characteristics (e.g., location, size, number of inhabitants, official languages, form of governmen...

Over the last decades, various predictors have proven relevant for job performance [e.g., general mental ability (GMA), broad personality traits, such as the Big Five]. However, prediction of job performance is far from perfect, and further potentially relevant predictors need to be investigated. Narrower personality traits, such as individuals' ch...

4bis8 - Fachzeitschrift für Kindergarten und Unterstufe

This chapter describes the positive institution of school as both a crucial learning environment for students and also as a crucial working environment for teachers. A positive school is seen as an institution where both students and teachers flourish. Using the theoretical framework of the “engine model of well-being” that focuses on inputs, proce...

Ziele der Psychologischen Diagnostik sind es, menschliches Verhalten und Erleben möglichst präzise zu beschreiben, zu klassifizieren, zu erklären und vorherzusagen sowie entsprechende Messinstrumente bereitzustellen. Zur Diagnostik von Charakterstärken im Sinne positiv bewerteter und interkulturell geschätzter Persönlichkeitseigenschaften stehen zu...

This chapter reviewed life satisfaction measures appropriate for children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Psychometric evidence was summarized in terms of normative samples, reliability, and validity data. A review of the available measures suggested that a number of life satisfaction measures demonstrate acceptable psychometric properties...

The present study focused on genetic and environmental influences on appreciation of structure and content of humor. Monozygotic (n = 135) and dizygotic (n = 60) adult twin pairs rated their trait-like humor appreciation using the 3 WD humor test (Ruch, 1992) which assesses three basic humor stimuli (incongruity-resolution humor; nonsense humor; se...

We investigated relationships among five higher-order strengths factors, subjective well-being, and general self-efficacy in participants that live under challenging conditions. Therefore, a sample of 396 Israeli adolescents (aged 13–18 years) completed the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, the Aff...

The present research describes the adaptation and initial validation of a brief measure of global life satisfaction, the Students’ Life Satisfactions Scale (SLSS), for German-speaking children and adolescents aged 10–17 years. Study 1 investigated the responses of 286 Swiss students (aged 12–17 years) administering paper-pencil questionnaires (e.g....

The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth (VIA-Youth) is a self-report inventory assessing 24 character strengths among people 10-17 years of age. This paper describes the adaptation and initial validation of a German version of this measure utilizing several samples (in total N = 2,110 self-reports of participants aged 10-17 years, 56....

The relationship between character strengths and vocational interests was tested. In an online study, 197 thirteen to eighteen year-olds completed a questionnaire measuring character strengths and a multi-method measure for interests (questionnaire, nonverbal test, and objective personality tests). The main findings were that intellectual strengths...

The present study investigated the role of 24 character strengths in 87 adolescent romantic relationships focusing on their role in partner selection and their role in mates' life satisfaction. Measures included the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth, the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale, and an Ideal Partner Profiler for the compos...

The present study investigated the role of the good character at school, specifically, its associations with satisfaction with school experiences, academic self-efficacy, positive classroom behavior, and objective school success (i.e., school grades). A sample of 247 students (mean age = 12 years) completed the Values in Action Inventory of Strengt...

Positive psychology studies what is best in people. In their classification of strengths and virtues, Peterson and Seligman [11] assign humor to the virtue of transcendence. Thus far, there is no specific study that deals with age-related changes in humor (as a strength of character) across a lifespan and its relation to well-being in the elderly....

Positive psychology is a scientific approach within psychology that focuses on research on what is best in people. Within this framework, humor is understood as a character strength. The article gives a brief overview on positive psychology and implications for aging (positive aging, successful aging) with an emphasis on the contribution of humor....

Die aktuelle Forschung zu Kindern und Jugendlichen sollte neben den klassischen Themen wie Schulversagen, Substanzmissbrauch, Jugendschwangerschaften etc. unbedingt auch positive Aspekte (z.B. sinnvolle Freizeitgestaltung) berücksichtigen, die helfen, das „gute“ Leben dieser Altersgruppe besser zu verstehen. Die Positive Psychologie hat Konzepte un...