The structure of virtue: An empirical investigation of the dimensionality of the virtues in action inventory of strengths

Research on virtues and character strengths has increased over the past decade. The virtues in action classification (VIA; Peterson & Seligman, 2004) is a comprehensive catalogue of 24 strengths organized under six broad-band virtues purported to be ubiquitous across time and culture. This study uses multiple criteria to determine the dimensionality of the VIA character strengths in an adult sample. Our results revealed that a three- or four-dimensional model best fit the data. We integrate our results with research from personality and positive psychology.