VIA test

Adam Layish

5/12/14

Hi, I’m Adam. I was born in St. Louis, but have lived in Orlando for most of my life. My father is a lung doctor and my mother is a social worker specializing in postpartum depression. I have two younger brothers ages 14 and 17 I am 20 years old and I am a college student at Valencia, and my major is psychology which I absolutely love. Some of my hobbies include biking, reading, movies, meditation, and writing. An interesting fact about me is that I have been a vegetarian since I was six years old (by my own choice.)

I recently took the VIA test, which is an online questionnaire consisting of 240 questions asking about your personality. Once you are done it presents you with your top 5 strengths out of 24 different possible traits. My top strength is creativity, originality and ingenuity. The other four going from most prominent to least are love of learning, gratitude, honesty/authenticity/genuineness, and appreciation for beauty. I feel that all of them are accurate one hundred percent except for the honestly one, which I would say is very accurate in some aspects, and completely the opposite in the others.

Like I said, my top strength is creativity, originality, and ingenuity. Most people would associate this with being good at art, music or something of that nature. I journal daily which helps me organize my thoughts-which I have a lot of, and I carry a little handy dandy notebook around with me everywhere in case I get an idea I feel is worthy of writing down. My belief is that just because something is the norm or has been used for a while, it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the only way to do things or is right, no matter how many people believe it. I back this up by using the example of the archaic belief that the world was flat. Just because everyone believed it, does it make it true? No. The example of my ingenuity that stands out to me most is a team building project that we did in middle school. We were separated into groups and each group was given a certain amount of tape, pipe cleaners, and plastic cups. The goal of this activity was to build the tallest tower possible. While the other groups were trying to figure out the physics of building a tower with cups, I had a simple yet ingenious idea to tape the pipe cleaners to the ceiling and than we put more and more pipe cleaners until it reached the floor. We didn’t even end up using the cups and of course our group won. I daydream a lot and I enjoy every minute of it. This is usually when I come up with ideas. It’s how I made 1000 dollars from a fifty dollar investment. I informed a doctor once that a combination of medications he prescribed to many of his patients could be potentially lethal, based off a simple deduction I made in my head. He looked more into it and he realized I was right, and he never prescribed that combination again. I come up with a lot of theories on everything from philosophy, psychology, medicine, quantum physics to solving the world’s social problems-whatever comes to mind pretty much. Not that I am an expert in any of these subjects (maybe I am an expert in psychology considering the vast amount I know on the topic considering I am a sophomore in college.) Speaking of all those subjects, that ties into my next strength.

I love learning new things. My primary interest is psychology and biopsychology. I read research journals almost every week because it interests me. If I am curious about something I will look it up almost immediately. However, the things I enjoy learning most about are the things I didn’t know I loved learning about. I consider myself open minded in this regard because I view every conversation as a chance to learn something new. I didn’t know I had an interest in medicine until I started talking to my dad about his work, and now I find it so fascinating. I love having friendly debates with people because even if you disagree with them you can still learn something new. I used to volunteer at a retirement home and the most fascinating part of this was listening to their life stories, the struggles they have been thru, and the wisdom they have to share. Traveling is one of the main things I attribute to opening my mind more. Traveling teaches you the various different ways people do things and how they live. It is one thing to hear someone talk about a country, but seeing and experiencing a different culture is in a whole different ballpark. Those are just a few examples. I could talk about this all day. I have a thirst for knowledge that will never be fully quenched. I will always keep learning. I love that about myself.

For gratitude, which is my third strength, I give my parents credit for instilling this value in me. They taught me to say thank you for everything-a cashier checking me out, emailing a teacher asking for help, saying thanks to a fireman or a police officer for their service. In fact, to take that last example even further, on Christmas when everyone is at home with the day off, the firemen and officers still have to work. So my mom and I used to go to the police and fire station to deliver cookies. I grew up in a very fortunate family, but I learned that not everyone has the same opportunities as me at a very early age, we would go to the no-so-nice areas of town and donate different things to different charities. I didn’t fully understand it at the time, but now I know how far a little appreciation can go. In fact it has been proven that appreciation and gratitude is a key component in happiness. Helping others-whether by donating resources or just saying “Thank you” along with a smile can go a long way.

I am a bit unsure about the honesty, authenticity, and genuineness. Intrapersonally, I would say I am very honest. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. I am able to admit when I am wrong about something. When it comes to other people, it takes a while for me to open up and be able to be myself. When this does happen, and when my friends and I get into serious conversations, I am usually the first to open up. Certain things that most people would find very personal and embarrassing are pretty easy to share. This makes the other person more comfortable and they usually reciprocate. It’s weird though, because I can be very manipulative. If there is someone who has done something I consider wrong to me, I will do almost anything to screw them over. Sometimes I have something to gain, other times it is just for the rush and knowing I got back at that person. I do find it weird that I would die for certain people, yet with other people I enjoy tearing apart that person’s life and taking away everything they love. But I can use persuasion, which follows the same techniques as manipulation, but usually for with a good intention. Still, I cannot honestly (no pun intended) that this is one of my top strengths due to the manipulation factor. However, I can proudly say I getting better at controlling my manipulative behavior. It just wastes so much energy, time, and in the end never solves anything. It doesn’t make you happy, it makes you angrier. I still do it. I am a human being but I like the phrase “progress not perfection” See? I told you I can be honest about my flaws.

The last strength of mine is the appreciation for beautiful things. Some of the things I find beautiful are quotes, movies, art, and music. For example, I was looking at a friend’s paintings, and one of them just stood out to me. It was called Oasis, and the best way I can describe it is a utopia in another dimension. I looked at every detail. The blue in the painting was perfect, the rocks shined. I imagined myself there while I was meditating and it was just stunning. I watch a movie almost every day, and I have an odd taste. I love movies that make me think and address real world issues, or sophisticated themes. When I saw “The Breakfast Club” for the first time I was moved right away. The way it captured what being an individual and different, yet coming together-it was just so accurate. And then of course there is nature. I love being in the woods or on the beach. Watching the sun rise or looking at the stars just fills my imagination with curiosity and there and I just feel like I am one with the universe.

Motivation

Growing up, I was a very extrinsically motivated person. My parents would always trying to get me to try new things and I always asked “What do I get out of it?,” hoping for something materialistic and monetary in return for doing even the most basic of tasks, such as going outside. My parents were always trying to get me out of my comfort zone, and eventually when trying to get me to donate to charity or learn an instrument, but I would always look at the materialistic side of things. My parents fed into it and spoiled me for a while, but I was classically conditioned to expect something in return for trying something new. My parents got tired of doing this, and when I still asked that same question they would respond with something along the lines of “happiness knowing you did something positive.”

I would refuse to do something unless I got something physical out of it. I missed out on many opportunities because of this mindset. I was very unhappy growing up. I didn’t have many friends, any hobbies, or things to be proud of. However, this was my fault. I didn’t see the non materialistic side of things, and as a result of this, I think that was why I was unhappy.

I use the word internal and external to best remember the terms intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when you are motivated to do something because of an external reward. And while in most cases external rewards usually involve money or objects, the term also refers to things like fame or power. I think a job would be the best example of extrinsic motivation. People work to make money, and in some jobs move up the position ladder. The desire to earn these things reflect in one's job performance. Of course, this does not apply to everyone. Some people genuinely enjoy their job.

Extrinsic motivation can actually be a good thing. People need money to have a decent life. Money doesn’t buy happiness, but generally the person living in a house is a happier than the homeless person. A lot of people hate their jobs, but they go anyways because they know they need to pay the bills.

However, it is been scientifically proven that there are several factors to happiness. Genetics and extrinsic motivators do play a role, however, positive psychology has proven that the most important factor in determining one’s level of happiness come from their level of intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivators are internal rewards. This mean just doing the action itself is motivating because it provides one with happiness and satisfaction. Examples of intrinsic motivators would be volunteering, charity work, hobbies, and exercising.

Recently, I have been a lot more happier. Nobody is really forcing me to do anything now since I’m 20. I’m choosing to go to school and actually study. I am doing it because it is something I want to do. I work out (although it doesn’t look like it) to feel better in general. I meditate and do yoga to calm me down. And nobody is forcing me to do these these. All of the are examples of intrinsic motivation. There is no external reward for doing these things (besides getting a degree.) In some cases you actually have to pay to do these things. But I am learning you need to be intrinsically motivated to be happy in life.