These are the strengths to describe what innate character strengths you drive your friendships from. All of these are evaluated (along the relationship attitudes and activity preferences) in the Friendship Personality Test.
Peace and Patience
People that radiate internal peace make it possible for other people to relax and calm in their presence. They can be the rock in emotional turmoil.
Positivity
Positivity is seeing the good in people and situations and making others around you see and feel it too.
Proactiveness and Consideration
This trait implies perceiving your friends needs and being willing to actively meet it, both at smaller and larger physical, emotional, financial or time cost to yourself
Humility
Taking a genuine interest in others and in particular your friends first. This is not being jealous but being quietly happy at their good fortunes and happiness.
Social Ease and Agreeableness
This is ‘being good with people’, making them comfortable to relax, integrating them, being able to do the small talk and taking the initiative to it.
Fun and Humour
Being able to make people laugh is a great trait. Laughter is good for us all and bringing it out in people is a wonderful capability
Energy and determination
Having energy is a resource, applying it in the context of your friends is a trait. For most experiences that determine our good friendships someone took the initiative and made us do that hike, that trip, engage in that project or volunteer action, and inspired us or cajoled us into it with his sheer determination to do it and involve us too.
Honesty and Integrity
We instinctively all know it when we see it in people. That sincerity, that ‘this is genuinely me’ aura honest and authentic people have about them. The feeling that our words will be safe with them. The feeling that there is no 2nd person hiding in there, behind the mask, but that word and thought are congruent.
Reliability and Persistence
While sometimes surprises are good, it is good to have a stable element in our life. Reliable and consistent friends who are with us and don’t just change their behaviour on a whim, but who will show up if they said they would, are sure not to drop of the radar but to maintain a stable affection for us is one of those key elements in life to give us comfort and stability.
Acceptance and Non-Judgement
The capability to separate between action and person. The affirmation of the other as a person and being undogmatic about aspects of disagreement.
Kindness and Warmth
This is the love and affection shown both spontaneously as well as over longer times. It is the warm hug, the caring smile, the meal prepared for us, the card sent to wish us well or a speedy recovery, all these are signs that the person genuinely cares for us from the bottom of her/his heart.
Intelligence and Curiosity
This trait is an enabler of good discussions, that are stimulating. The variety of topics, interest and the quality of arguments are all driven by an acute and alive intellect. The love of learning and teaching enables great interactions that are by design memory building for friends too.
This constitutes the ‘blue circle’ in the Friendship Framework
