Positive Personalities – A New Measurement Scale

Positive Personalities – A New Measurement Scale

What a lovely surprise to come across a piece of research conducted by Scott Barry Kaufmann and his colleagues in which they construct a new scale to measure positive personality traits. They have called this the Light Triad Scale. As we know for many years, psychology has focused on the negative side of human behaviour, classifying, diagnosing and developing potential treatments for traits such as narcissism and psychopathology. These two traits along with Machiavellianism have become known as the Dark Triad and I find this shift in focus to be very welcome indeed. Unfortunately these negative traits have been glamourised over the years despite the harm they cause to others.  Now it is time to give the limelight to positive traits. The Light Triad The Light Triad comprises the following three personality traits: Kantianism which is the extent to which we treat people as an end in their own right, not as the means to achieving another goal. Humanism which is the extent to which we value the dignity and worth of each individual. Faith in Humanity which is the extent to which we believe people are fundamentally good. Both dark and light personality characteristics are assessed in the new scale and you can take the test yourself here. Why Does This Matter? The research found that the Light Triad correlated with greater feelings of life satisfaction, compassion, humility and with connectedness to others than The Dark Triad. These are central concepts to the field of Positive Psychology. A high score on the Light Triad also correlated with an optimistic outlook about oneself, the future and the world as well as...