Literature DB >> 26284003

Editorial: Character, responsibility, and well-being: influences on mental health and constructive behavior patterns.

Danilo Garcia1, Ann-Christine Andersson Arntén2, Trevor Archer3.   

Abstract

Entities:  

Keywords:  agency; character; communion; personality; responsibility; spirituality; well-being

Year:  2015        PMID: 26284003      PMCID: PMC4518140          DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01079

Source DB:  PubMed          Journal:  Front Psychol        ISSN: 1664-1078


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Character can be defined as self-aware knowledge that helps the individual to set goals, values, and ethical principles (Cloninger, 2004). This meta-cognitive dimension of human personality involves “Theory of Mind,” and is positively related to measures of well-being, mental health, and constructive behavior patterns. Research from at least three different fields, cultural (Shweder et al., 1997), personality (Cloninger, 2004), and social psychology (Abele and Wojciszke, 2007) suggest that character can be organized along three broad principles: agency, which is related to the autonomy and the fulfillment and enhancement of the self; communion, which is related to engagement in the protection and relations to others such as families, companies or nations; and spirituality, which is related to the human ability to transcend the self and find and interconnection with all life and appreciation of the whole world around us (Haidt, 2006; Cloninger, 2013). Using the Temperament and Character Inventory (Cloninger et al., 1993) researchers have found that Self-directedness (i.e., agency), Cooperativeness (i.e., communion), and Self-transcendence (i.e., Spirituality) are associated to high levels of happiness, psychological well-being, and less violent behavior (Garcia et al., 2013, 2015; Nima and Garcia, 2015; Mousavi et al., 2015). Moreover, low Self-directedness and Cooperativeness is recurrent among individuals with all types of mental health problems, such as, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and etcetera. Self-transcendence, in coherence with Self-directedness and Cooperativeness, guides the individual to seek self-realization in harmony with others and nature in the changing world (Cloninger, 2013). Seeing character as self-awareness of the self in three dimensions has also been associated to human responsibility and empowerment (Nima et al., 2012; Schütz et al., 2013a,b; Cloninger and Garcia, 2015). In this Research Topic researchers offer their perspective on character, responsibility, and well-being. Ruch and his colleagues, using other measures for character, offer a series of articles ranging from life satisfaction among religious people (Berthold and Ruch, 2014) to good character in school (Wagner and Ruch, 2015). Abele develops the idea of how communal values need to be pursued in agentic ways (Abele, 2014), while Garcia and his colleagues give an insight into the possible use of character-centered teams at work places (e.g., Garcia et al., 2014a) and also its etiology in adolescence (Garcia et al., 2014b). Continuing this line, Jeppsson (2014) gives a philosophical perspective on responsibility in the field of criminal justice. Finally, Moreira et al. (2015) show the importance of character and its relation to well-being during adolescence, while Nilsson (2014) gives a critical opinion of the need of introducing the perspective of worldview when studying the association between personality and well-being. With this range of different takes on the interactions between character, responsibility and well-being we hope to give a new perspective on the investigation of personality's role on human health and well-being.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
  15 in total

1.  Personality and intelligence: persistence, not self-directedness, cooperativeness or self-transcendence, is related to twins' cognitive abilities.

Authors:  Fariba Mousavi; Sandor Rozsa; Thomas Nilsson; Trevor Archer; Henrik Anckarsäter; Danilo Garcia
Journal:  PeerJ       Date:  2015-08-20       Impact factor: 2.984

2.  The affective profiles in the USA: happiness, depression, life satisfaction, and happiness-increasing strategies.

Authors:  Erica Schütz; Uta Sailer; Ali Al Nima; Patricia Rosenberg; Ann-Christine Andersson Arntén; Trevor Archer; Danilo Garcia
Journal:  PeerJ       Date:  2013-09-10       Impact factor: 2.984

3.  Responsibility and cooperativeness are constrained, not determined.

Authors:  Danilo Garcia; Alva Stråge; Sebastian Lundström; Susanna Radovic; Sven Brändström; Maria Råstam; Thomas Nilsson; C Robert Cloninger; Nóra Kerekes; Henrik Anckarsäter
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2014-05-07

4.  To schedule or not to schedule? Agentic and cooperative teams at call centers.

Authors:  Danilo Garcia; Erik Lindskär; Trevor Archer
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2014-09-16

5.  Pursuit of communal values in an agentic manner: a way to happiness?

Authors:  Andrea E Abele
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2014-11-18

6.  Personality and well-being in adolescents.

Authors:  Paulo A S Moreira; C Robert Cloninger; Liliana Dinis; Laura Sá; João T Oliveira; Adelaide Dias; Joana Oliveira
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2015-01-07

7.  Responsibility problems for criminal justice.

Authors:  Sofia M I Jeppsson
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2014-07-29

8.  Factor structure of the happiness-increasing strategies scales (H-ISS): activities and coping strategies in relation to positive and negative affect.

Authors:  Ali Al Nima; Danilo Garcia
Journal:  PeerJ       Date:  2015-07-02       Impact factor: 2.984

9.  A non-reductive science of personality, character, and well-being must take the person's worldview into account.

Authors:  Artur Nilsson
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2014-08-28

10.  Satisfaction with life and character strengths of non-religious and religious people: it's practicing one's religion that makes the difference.

Authors:  Anne Berthold; Willibald Ruch
Journal:  Front Psychol       Date:  2014-08-14
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