VIA Character Strengths: Theory, Research and Practice - Volume II

We welcome contributions to a second Research Topic on character strengths, focusing on open and emerging questions in the science of character strengths and their relevance in a rapidly changing world. We welcome theoretical, empirical, methodological, and integrative work that advances understanding of what we still do not know about character strengths, while also examining how their endorsement, expression, appreciation, and development may be changing as the environments in which people live, work, learn, and relate to one another evolve.

The first volume of this Research Topic, published in 2021, brought together 15 articles and reflected the rapid growth and broad relevance of character strengths across diverse areas of human functioning. Published during the COVID-19 pandemic, that volume preceded major changes that have since become part of everyday life, including the expansion of remote and hybrid work and the rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence and large language models, which have transformed how people learn, work, create, communicate, and make decisions.

Five years later, we therefore return to the science of character strengths in a substantially changed world. This second volume looks both inward, at unresolved questions and emerging directions within the field, and outward, at the changing contexts in which character strengths are expressed and used. Beyond asking whether character strengths matter, we seek to advance understanding of how, when, for whom, and under what conditions they matter; where the boundaries of their beneficial effects lie; and what roles they may play as individuals and societies navigate continuing technological and social change.

One particularly fundamental question concerns the distinctive value of character in an age in which people can increasingly outsource cognitive tasks and capabilities to artificial intelligence. As activities involving information seeking, analysis, writing, problem solving, and even creative production can increasingly be delegated to or supported by AI, what becomes of the role of human character? Do character strengths become less important, more important, or important in different ways? How might strengths shape the ways in which people engage with, complement, critically evaluate, and rely on artificial intelligence? More broadly, what does the increasing capacity to outsource aspects of human intelligence imply for the value and role of human good and moral character?

At the same time, technological and societal changes are reshaping how people organize their lives. Changing boundaries among work, family, learning, and relationships invites renewed attention to the expression and development of character strengths across life domains. They also raise questions about the balance and integration of different life roles and about the place of leisure—not merely as recovery from work, but as a potentially important context for the expression and development of strengths.

We invite contributions addressing questions, including but not limited to the following:

• Mechanisms and processes: How and why do character strengths contribute to well-being, functioning, relationships, performance, adaptation, and meaning? What psychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and contextual mechanisms explain their effects?

• Boundaries and conditions: When are particular strengths beneficial, ineffective, or potentially costly? How do underuse and overuse, combinations of strengths, situational demands, and person–environment fit shape their consequences? Under what circumstances might the same strength lead to different outcomes?

• Context and culture: How are strengths expressed, valued, developed, and used across cultures, populations, social contexts, and life circumstances? To what extent are current models and findings generalizable beyond the contexts in which they were originally developed and studied?

• Character strengths in times of uncertainty and change: What roles do strengths play in adaptation, resilience, meaning, relationships, and functioning under conditions of uncertainty, disruption, crisis, and rapid change? Which strengths, combinations of strengths, or patterns of strengths use may be particularly relevant under changing circumstances?

• Character strengths and human distinctiveness in the age of AI: What is the distinctive contribution of character strengths when cognitive tasks and capabilities can increasingly be delegated to artificial intelligence? Does AI increase or diminish the importance of particular strengths, or change the ways in which they are expressed? How might strengths influence people's capacity to use AI effectively, critically, responsibly, and autonomously? What does the growing capacity to outsource aspects of human intelligence imply for the value of human character?

• Changing work and learning environments: How do remote and hybrid work, digital learning, changing career patterns, and AI-supported environments affect the expression, use, and development of character strengths? How might strengths help individuals navigate the opportunities and demands created by these environments?

• Strengths across life domains and roles: How are character strengths expressed and developed across work, family, education, relationships, leisure, and other areas of life? What role might strengths play in navigating multiple life roles and in achieving balance or integration among them? To what extent does the opportunity to express one's strengths in one domain complement or compensate for their limited expression in another?

• Leisure as a context for character strengths: What is the role of leisure as an arena for strengths expression and development? How might the use of strengths in freely chosen activities contribute to meaning, identity, recovery, personal growth, and well-being? What can the study of leisure add to a literature in which work and education have received considerably more attention?

• New directions in strengths-based interventions: Which interventions work, for whom, through what mechanisms, and under which conditions? How can strengths-based interventions be adapted to changing life contexts? What opportunities and risks arise when assessment, guidance, or interventions are supported or delivered by artificial intelligence?

• Conceptual, methodological, and ethical challenges: Which assumptions in the science of character strengths require reconsideration? What new conceptualizations, methods, or research designs are needed to move the field forward? What ethical questions arise from new applications of strengths-based approaches, including issues of authenticity, agency, personalization, privacy, and unintended consequences?

We particularly encourage contributions that move beyond demonstrating associations between character strengths and desirable outcomes and instead clarify mechanisms, boundary conditions, contextual influences, causal processes, or unresolved theoretical questions. Across these themes, the Research Topic is intended to maintain a strictly scientific and non-partisan focus. Contributions should advance theoretical, conceptual, methodological, or empirical understanding of character strengths rather than promote particular political or ideological positions.

The aim of this second Research Topic is not simply to document further evidence that character strengths matter. Rather, it is to help identify and address the questions that should shape the next stage of the science of character strengths. By bringing together unresolved questions within the field with the profound changes occurring in the contexts in which people live and function, we hope to deepen understanding of both the possibilities and the limits of character strengths and to stimulate research that will help define the field's future directions.

We welcome original empirical research, longitudinal and experimental studies, qualitative and mixed-method research, systematic and integrative reviews, methodological contributions, and conceptual or theoretical papers that offer a substantive advance to the science of character strengths.