Today in class we took a signature strength survey which consisted of 96 questions to identify and rank our strengths. My top score or signature strength after taking the survey was Judgement, which is not one of the original twenty four strengths in the book, however on the website it was listed under the virtue category of wisdom and defined as, “thinking things through and examining them from all sides; not jumping to conclusions; being able to change one’s mind in light of evidence; [and] weighing all evidence fairly” (“VIA Institute on Character”, 2020). For me personally, I am not necessarily surprised by Judgement being my highest score, however I do not think I was expecting judgement to be my highest score either. I think with my top ten strengths they are all relatively equal and on a given day could fluctuate between being my number one. For example, with judgement this behavior is seen in me because I like to weigh all sides of every situation and pick the best side. In politics I tend to fluctuate back and forth because I am weighing the sides and one bad statement can turn me off of a politician. As well, my friends come to me and vent their problems and then ask me for my opinion to say whether they are being rationale and thinking wisely based on the situation and all the different sides. Due to this, I do show judgement in my everyday life and it is not surprising that it is my strongest strength. I however also show my third strongest strength of creativity in math, science, art and my everyday life. In math and science I enjoy looking at the problems from new perspectives and trying to think of new ways to examine and study a disease. As well, I enjoy drawing and creating wood projects and doing basic things like organizing. For love of learning, which was my fifth highest I also do love learning and will Google and explore something I see on television and attempt to learn a lot about it overnight. I think I show my top strengths relatively equally but as I have been helping my friend with decisions recently more often and weighing all the sides this may be why judgement was my number one.
To do a strength activity I usually do not do I looked at Graduate schools and tried to weigh the pros and cons of each school such as distance, price, education will receive, prestige, and other factors and then make a judgement on which ones might be good for me to apply to and which ones may not be best suited for me as I will be a senior next year. It is something I have not taken the time to really sit down and look at completely and so taking the time and trying to learn more about the different colleges is a good thing for me to do and will hopefully help male the decisions easier later on. Schools I looked at include local schools and the UC’s as well as some out of state schools. As well, as a psychology major who wants to focus in on autism research I looked for schools that may have some focus in that area.
Doing this activity is a good feeling and a slightly nerve racking feeling at the same time. It is very important and something I need to do but at the same time, graduate school is a big commitment and decision that I know will not be easy especially trying to get a doctorate. It is good to look more in depth as I have only looked at a few colleges here and there and so it adds more information and will help me to make a better judgment on where to go to graduate school when I do. As well, I will keep doing the behavior because I obviously still do need more information on schools as applications approach, but I can also alter the activity to try and gain more information on other important decisions in my life and make judgements with added information from researching and seeing all the pros and cons.
References
VIA Institute on Character. (2020, January 13). Retrieved from https://www.viacharacter.org/www/
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