research paper

Topic: The relationship between character strengths and self-report physical health among trauma-exposed college students.

This study is based on the VIA Classification and Peterson and Seligman’s VIA Inventory of character strengths (VIA-IS-M), which gives the way to test the role of good character in relation to physical health. There are 24-character strengths describe in six degrees: wisdom (creativity, curiosity, judgment, love-of-learning, perspective), courage (bravery, honesty, perseverance, zest), humanity (kindness, love, social intelligence), justice (fairness, leadership, teamwork), temperance (forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation), transcendence (appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality).

Previous studies: There are many studies have addressed the relation of character strengths and human well-being. The strength of zest, hope, and gratitude have the significant correlation with life satisfaction (Brdar, I., Anić, P., & Rijavec, M. (2011)). The strength of hope, zest, and curiosity, gratitude play key roles in satisfaction with life (Buschor, C., Proyer, R. T., & Ruch, W. 2013). Personality characteristics such as hostility, neuroticism, and optimism can be risk factors for physical disease (Smith & Spiro, 2002). Personality traits such as positive traits have positive relationships with physical health (Pressman, S. D., & Cohen, S., 2005). Also, the study shows that PTSD related to health issues, and PTSD symptoms as the moderator of this relationship (Pacella, 2013). Therefore, it is reasonable to generate the hypothesis that there are positive relationships between character strengths and physical health among college students who have exposed to traumatic experiences.

Method: ask participants to complete an online survey of all instruments included. It includes the VIA Inventory of Strength for adults (VIA-IS-M), Stressful life events screening questionnaire (SLESQ), Cohen-hoberman inventory of physical symptoms (33-item self-report instrument that measures physical health symptoms, Cohen, 1983). By using the SLESQ (Goodman, 2006) to select only college students who have been exposed to traumatic experience.

Pacella, M. L., Hruska, B., & Delahanty, D. L. (2013). The physical health consequences of PTSD and PTSD symptoms: a meta-analytic review. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27(1), 33-46.

Instructions

You must use APA style and formatting! The paper must include title page, introduction which includes review of related literature along with the last paragraph that states the purpose of your study and identifies the hypotheses, a methods section that identifies the details of your study, a plan for your analysis (replaces the results section), and a reference section. The related literature must include at least 8 PRIMARY SOURCES. Avoid direct quotations – I will allow two brief quotations (i.e., one sentence each), but you will lose points for more. This is not a long paper and you need to learn to write using your own words what the authors are communicating. Papers will be posted through TURNITIN on Moodle. TURNITIN checks for plagiarism.

Submitting Through Turnitin

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