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The nonprofit VIA Institute on Character was founded to create a scientifically rigorous classification of character strengths (the VIA Classification) and a way of measuring them (the VIA Survey).  The VIA Classification and Survey are used by psychologists, management consultants, life and health coaches, social workers, educators and individuals interested in character development. The Institute is devoted to developing new science-based knowledge and practice.

Take VIA Survey of Character

The VIA-IS has been used by nearly 1 million people world wide. All surveys are free and confidential. 

Positive Psych Rules! A report from IPPA

IPPA's first World Congress exceeded all expectations and VIA was honored to be a part of it. Initial reports show attendance at 1,750 people from more than 70 nations.  Forty percent of the attendees were from outside the United States. 

The Congress ended Sunday, June 21, with final thoughts from IPPA Chair and VIA’s Science Director, Chris Peterson, who said, “The future of positive psychology is you.” More...

The Practice Corner 


Benefits of the
VIA Personal
Character Profile

Ryan M. Niemiec, Psy.D. Education Director, VIA

The VIA Personal Character Profile, written by Chris Peterson, Neal Mayerson, and VIA staff, is a detailed, 17-page report individualized to you, the test-taker of the VIA-IS. It is the first psychological test that I’m aware of that personalizes the results of a free, scientifically valid test and makes the in-depth interpretation portion of the results available to the user (at the $40 cost or a discount).  More...
Signature Strengths:
More Frequency Data

By Neal H. Mayerson, Ph.D.
Chairman, VIA Institute on Character

Chris Peterson and Marty Seligman define signature strengths as “strengths of character that a person owns, celebrates, and frequently exercises.”  They recommend taking a look at the top 2 - 5 ranked VIA character strengths as a point of departure in the process of identifying signature strengths. 

In August of last year, we reported the results of a random sampling of VIA survey results in which we looked at the frequency with which various strengths appear in people’s “top 5” rankings of their character strengths.  We recently revisited this question by looking at the most recent 655,000 survey results.

In addition to finding similar results in terms of the rank ordering of most-common and least-common “signature strengths,” other interesting results were found.  These results may be useful to practitioners who are consulting with groups, working with clients, and those who are giving workshops, since they provide a guideline for guessing what signature strengths might be represented most commonly and least commonly in an audience. More...

Join the VIA Community!

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VIA is a free community for practitioners and researchers who use VIA character strengths in their work. Membership is separate from the registration required to take the VIA Survey.

VIA Library Growing

We are pleased to make our online library open to all.  Just click on Library in the top-of-page navigation , and you'll find a robust list of videos,  books and abstracts of articles on the VIA Classification and Positive Psychology.  We invite your comments on each entry, so please don't be shy with recommendations or opinions.  If you have a publication, video or audio link you'd like to add, simply e-mail the information to: Senior Editor Linda Parker. 


Get an Expanded 17-Page Report of Your VIA Character Strengths

Sample Profile

Purchase a Consultant Code

A new detailed report of your results from the VIA-IS or VIA Survey is now available. 
The Personal Character Profile includes:
  • Detailed descriptions of signature or top strengths, including ways to use them
  • Multiple graphs showing character-strength weights in rank order
  • Weights in virtue categories
  • A comparative report (percentile)
  • Placement of signature strengths on a factor-analyzed graph (head/heart, self/others)
If you have taken the survey in the past, you can obtain a report from the VIA Survey Center by checking the "Get Survey Results" box.

Individuals can purchase a Personal Character Profile, $40, when you complete the VIA Survey. Students may use a discount coupon code which brings the cost to $20. Please request a coupon from Linda Parker.

Consultants can purchase a Consultant Code for clients to use when they take the survey. The report is then emailed to the purchaser of the code immediately upon completion of the VIA Survey. Discounts are available for groups.

As always, the traditional results - the rank order of character strengths with brief descriptions - will continue to be available to all, at no charge, a gift of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation. 

Dr. Christopher Peterson
VIA Science Director

Chris Peterson, Ph.D., professor at the University of Michigan since 1986, is a member of the Positive Psychology Steering Committee, a consulting editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology and a former Templeton Senior Fellow. He led the creation of the VIA Classification of Strengths and was lead author of Character Strengths and Virtues, A Handbook and Classification.

A founding father of  Positive Psychology, he is one of the world's 100 most-cited psychologists.