A Tripartite Taxonomy of Character

• In Event: The Past, Present, and Future of Character Education

Abstract

Character, the disposition to act, feel, and think in admirable and beneficial ways, is widely recognized as multidimensional. Recently, growing numbers of educators have become convinced that character strengths are strongly implicated in academic success (Tough, 2012). As a consequence, there has been a surge of interest in the fields of developmental science, social, positive, and personality psychology, and education in assessing and promoting the growth of character strengths.

In a sample of several hundred students from middle-schools in the Northeast, both teachers and the students themselves rated 24 items chosen to represent zest, self-control (schoolwork and interpersonal), gratitude, curiosity, optimism, grit, and social intelligence.

Exploratory factor analysis indicated a three-factor solution describing intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intellectual character. Items loading on intrapersonal character seem to facilitate the achievement of personal goals, largely consisting of items from the grit, optimism, curiosity, and schoolwork self-control scales. Items loading on interpersonal character seem to facilitate harmonious relationships with other people, taking items from the gratitude, optimism, social intelligence, and interpersonal self-control scales. Items loading on intellectual character seem to facilitate learning, consisting of items from the zest and curiosity scales. These three factors differentially related to variety of outcomes assessed one year later, including objective academic performance and self-reported well-being and social functioning.

The tripartite taxonomy of character we propose here converges with other classifications of character in current theoretical research. For instance, the same tripartite taxonomy has been identified by the National Research Council of the National Academies (2012) in their review of skills and knowledge necessary to function in the 21st century economy as well as by a taskforce on novel measures of competence in school-age children convened by the Spencer Foundation. This study provides further empirical evidence that such a tripartite model exists, and additionally, that these character strengths can contribute to personal achievement. Moreover, the current study adds to existing literature by focusing on an understudied population that may stand to benefit most from the promotion and development of character strengths related to positive academic and life outcomes.

Authors

• Angela L. Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania

• Eli Tsukayama, University of Pennsylvania

• Sarah Patrick, University of Pennsylvania