We have completed the most integrative and innovative development of character assessment to date.

The vast majorityof character assessment tools have relied on lexical approaches that are inherently culturally- and contextually-bound or have arguably used imprecise inclusion criteria that likely distorts the dimensions of character. In short, attempts at assessing character have either been inductive and bottom-up or purely theoretical and top-down. Our measurement development process has used an integrative methodology whereby a top-down strategy was first used to a) inform inclusion criteria and b) guard against cultural-relativism in the early stages of item generation and development. We then subsequently subjected our measure to empirical analysis to derive a reliable factor structure of character and the virtues that describe it. However, this is not what really distinguishes our measure from others. Our primary end goal was to create a character assessment tool that reliability and validly measures virtues of character. This required that we create the first ever character assessment tool that directly addresses self-presentation biases by the way we formatted the measure and this is what makes our measure truly distinct and represents a significant breakthrough in character assessment.

A key challenge faced when seeking to measure virtues – or any self-reported characteristic – is the problem of self-presentation biases. Self-presentation biases occur when people give inaccurate or exaggerated reports of their characteristics due to intentional efforts to promote a positive image, lack of insight, or an unconscious tendency to construct a positive image of oneself through self-deception. Due to these biases, results from virtue measures often reflect desired positive images rather than actual levels of virtues.

Such biases are particularly pronounced when using the standard self-report format – the CIVIC rating scale: