The Character Effect in Psychology of Regret and Potential

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Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
   
2. Evaluation of Existing literature
   
3. Critique on Existing literature
   
4. Research Method
   
5. Analysis
   - Regret, Antecedent, and Causes
   - Outcomes
   - What you could have to use your 100%?
   
6. Implications on employees and on OB practitioners
   
7. Conclusion
   
8. Limitation
   
9. Bibliography

Introduction:

Everytime when confronted with outcome of a bad decision, people start blaming themselves and then realize that if only they could have acted differently, this outcome would have been better and different. The unpleasant feeling, experienced by people when they look back on the bad decisions they have taken, is the emotion of regret. But Regret occurs when people lack the Potential to take a wiser decision and act upon it accordingly. But what is Potential all about? Potential is nothing but a virtue of character with which one is nurtured since Childhood. And Character doesn’t builds up in a day, it is the cumulative effect of all namely, the experiences of themselves, their dreams, desire and the character of people with who they interact. With this study, we took a step to delve into the reasons of Regrets that people have at their organizations and how the cause that was seeming external, with no internal locus of control is related to one’s own character and failure to use their own potential. We also studied how this external reasons could be transformed into one’s own strengths just by continuously practicing character that would affect vision, dreams and strengths and hence, leaving no room for Regrets. With the antecedents, causes, outcome and ways to improvement, this study opens another avenue of understanding Regret as an unused potential and which is a virtue of character.

Evaluation of Existing literature:
(from: Strengths of Character and Well–Being by Nansook Park, Christopher Peterson, Martin E. P. Seligman)

Positive psychology is an umbrella term for theories and research about what makes life most worth living (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Strengths of character and positive experiences such as a satisfied life are among the central concerns of positive psychology (McCullough & Snyder, 2000; Seligman, 2002). Character strengths can be defined as positive traits reflected in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They exist in degrees and can be measured as individual differences. We speculate that these are grounded in biology through an evolutionary process that selected for these predispositions toward moral excellence as means solving the important tasks necessary for survival of the species (cf. Bok, 1995; Schwartz, 1994; Wright, 1994). As an initial step toward specifying important positive traits, The Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Strengths was developed.

The details of our thinking are spelled out elsewhere (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Here are our conclusions:
• A character strength is “a disposition to act, desire, and feel that involves the exercise of judgment and leads to a recognizable human excellence or instance of human flourishing” (Yearley, 1990, p, 13).

• Character strengths are plural—that is, good character comprises a family of positive traits.

• Character strengths are not segregated mechanisms with automatic effects on behavior; rather, virtuous activity involves choosing virtue for itself and in light of a justifiable life plan, which means that people can reflect on their own strengths of character and talk about them to others.

• Character strengths can be distinguished from related individual differences such as talents and abilities by different

• The application of these criteria led us to identify 24 different strengths of character.

For Seligman, the strengths are the “route” through we achieve virtues in our life.

Seligman clarifies the difference between talents and strengths by defining strengths as moral traits that can be developed, learned, and that take effort. Talents, on the other hand, tend to be inherent and can only be cultivated from what exists rather than what develops through effort (Seligman 2002, p. 134). For example, many people consider musical ability as more or less inherent and can only be strengthened.

Seligman sees the healthy exercise and development of strengths and virtues as a key to the good life – a life in which one uses one’s “signature strengths every day in the main realms of your life to bring abundant gratification and authentic happiness.” The good life is a place of happiness, good relationships and work, and from this point, Seligman encourages people to go further to seek a meaningful life in the continual quest for happiness (Seligman 2002, p. 161).

Critique on the existing literature:

Seligman and Peterson has beautifully captured the essence of strengths of character and how can it bring authentic happiness in anyone’s life and that relates to the study that with character one can avoid all the regrets of their life. But the existing literature fails to draw an analogy between Character and Potential apart from also between Potential and Regret. Also the existing literature could draw an appropriate analogy that Character can be developed with practice. With this study we extend the existing literature to the point that all external locus of control start resembling as internal locus of control because of every Regret becoming an outcome of undeveloped Character leading to not using of one’s Potential fully. And one can easily transform all the Regret into Potential with it.

Research Methodology:

Detailed Telephonic interview of working people with 1 year to 12 year of experience, selected through convenient sampling.
Number of respondents: 10

Analysis:
The analysis deals with every regret, outcome and causes getting mapped to a weakness of Character and how it can be improved through practice of Character that would boost the Potential leaving no room for any Regret.

The list of top 20 regrets with their Antecedents and Causes as per detailed interview:

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