Compare Character strengths in students based on academic fields

Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal human functioning. The focus of positive psychology is on how human life flourishes and reaches its potentials. Character strengths are the core concepts of the scientific approach to positive psychology. This study aims to compare the advantages of character in students according to their academic fields. For this purpose, 351 students of Islamic Azad University, Shabestar branch were selected from different faculties and different majors using the stratified clustering method. Values in action inventory of strengths (short form) questionnaire were used to measure the variables. The methodology of this study is causal-comparative, and for data analysis, multivariate analysis of variance was used. After the test assumptions, results indicated that the elements of character strengths are significantly different in the students based on their academic fields. Accordingly, students obtained different scores in the sub-elements regarding their educational grades and majors. For investigating the mean difference of the groups regarding character strengths, Scheffe post-hoc test was used. In this manner, among students of humanities, technical-engineering, basic sciences, and agriculture were significantly different in the components of character strengths except for leadership, forgiveness, humility, and humor. Regarding the obtained results, it seems that the nature of the academic field affects the character strengths of the students. Moreover, as positive attributes of the character affect selecting educational, academic areas, they are influenced by the academic fields as well. Thus, based on the academic fields of students, using promotion plans for the character strengths in them are recommended.