Thanks! to the contributors to Character Strengths and Virtues

As part of this month’s theme of exploring character strengths, we’d like to add our thanks to the gratitude that Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman expressed to 40 social scientists who contributed to the book, Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification.. Here’s the text of their thanks from page vi:

   Manual of the
   Sanities

Individual chapters in Section II of this book were drafted by expert social scientists — see the list of contributors (pp. xiii-xiv)–commissioned by us to review what was known about the various character strengths in the classification. We were fortunate that virtually all of our first choices were able to write these drafts. In a few cases, we commissioned two separate drafts for a given character strength, and these drafts were then melded. All the drafts were thoughtful and thorough, and we think that a fine book would have resulted simply from gathering them together, even without our editing. However we took a further step and rewrote each draft for consistency in organization and tone. Our editing was deliberately heavy-handed, and the contributors should not be held responsible for any resulting errors.

The list of the contributors in the book is in alphabetical order by author name. The one below is in the order of the character strengths. We present it this way because it is the way we use the list in the book — to look up who was considered the expert on a particular strength so we know where to look for more information about it. So here we say thank you to the people who pulled together so much useful information.

Lessons from History: Katherine Dahlsgaard

Assessment and Applications: Nansook Park

Wisdom strengths:

• Creativity: Dean Keith Simonton
• Curiosity: Todd Kashdan
• Open-mindedness: None listed
• Love of Learning: K. Ann Renninger, Carol Sansone, Jessi L. Smith
• Perspective: Pamela S. Hartman

Courage strengths:

• Bravery: Tracy A. Steen, Monica C. Worline
• Persistence: Andrew C. Harter, Dianne M. Tice, Harry M. Wallace
• Integrity: Lucy Davidson, Elizabeth Pollard, Kennon M. Sheldon
• Vitality: Jessey H. Bernstein, Richard M. Ryan

Humanity strengths:

• Love and be loved: Cindy Hazan
• Kindness: Michael E. McCullough, Stephen G. Post
• Social intelligence: John D. Mayer, Peter Salovey

Justice strengths:

• Citizenship: Constance C. Flanagan
• Fairness: Marvin W. Berkowitz, Stephen A. Sherblom
• Leadership: Stephen J. Zaccaro

Temperance strengths:

• Forgiveness: Michael E. McCullough
• Humility: Roy F. Baumeister, W. Keith Campbell, Julie Juola Exline, Thomas Joiner, Lauren V. Kachorek, Joachim I. Krueger
• Prudence: Nick Haslam
• Self-regulation: Roy F. Baumeister, Kathleen D. Vohs

Transcendent strengths:

• Appreciation of beauty and excellence: Jonathan Haidt, Dacher Keltner
• Gratitude: Robert Emmons
• Hope: None listed
• Humor: Willibald Ruch
• Spirituality: Jacqueline S. Mattis

 
Reference

Peterson, C. & Seligman, M. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.