Lawyers, Happiness, and

Personality: A Workshop

• Daniel S. Bowling, III, JD, MAPP, Duke Law School

• Margaret Kern, PhD, Penn Positive Psychology Ctr. and U of Melbourne

Hot off the Presses!

• Character Strengths

Don’t Help in Law

School Grades

• Even more “negative”

strength and traits –

critical thinking, self-reg,

low EI – don’t help

• Lawyers aren’t born

Assholes!

WORKSHOP OUTLINE

• My Background

• Problems with Lawyers

• Non-Responsiveness of Legal Institutions

• Need for Theory and Evidence

• Our Study

• Workshop Discussion and New DIrections

THE

PARADOX

RICH

SMART

POWERFUL

=

SAD?

Professionalism

Declines

P Well-Being

Respect

Conscience

Citizenship

exemplar

self-improvement

“I don’t give a Damn about the happiness of lawyers” – US District Court Judge, 6/7/2011

DO NOTHING

MENTAL HEALTH

RESULTS

P/E

Existing Approach Therapuetical

• Psychological Interventions

• “Work-life” initiatives

• Stress management

• Office perks

• Yoga classes

• Meditative Law movement

Need Unifying Theory of Relationship of Professional and Personal Well-

being In Law

Insufficiency of Data

• Small amount of empirical data on lawyer well-being and also personality

• Well-being (lack thereof) data dated, non-peer reviewed, and/or anecdotal

• Survey data inconsistent/non-rigorous

• Seligman study (2002) and how it has shaped the field

• Peterson and Peterson (2008) advocates character strengths app. in law school

Character Strengths and Academic Performance in Law Students

Margaret L. Kern, University of Pennsylvania

Daniel S. Bowling, III, Duke Law School

Law School Brutally Competitive

• 45,000 law school grads per year in U.S.

• 57% in full time, bar-passage jobs in year (ABA 2013)

• Salary range 3-4X between top and bottom

• Class rank dictates IF and WHERE you fall in these stats

Professor Kingsfield

Importance of 1L Grades

• One grade per course, 7-8 courses

• Exam-based, blind graded

• No interim feedback

• Strictly Enforced 1.6-4.0 Grade

Distribution

• 2d and 3d year top-heavy curve, so

not much chance to catch up in rank

• ONE BAD DAY CAN DICTATE CAREER

Study Design • 132 incoming law students at Emory

took VIA-IS online before start of 2010 classes

• 164 at American U. Law School in 2011

• Similar in age and intellectual achievements

• Scores compared to 1L grades, 1L and 2L at Emory, and undergrad GPA at both

VIA-IS (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)

• 240 item questionnaire

• Measures 24 virtues (positive

characteristics)

• Factor analysis suggests five clusters:

restraint, interpersonal, emotional,

theological, and intellectual (McGrath,

2012)

• Use of strengths linked to psychological and

functional outcomes (Niemic, 2013)

• Use of strengths related to less depression

in law school (Peterson & Peterson, 2008)

What did we Expect? • Lower mean strengths scores for

law students overall

• Lowest in humanistic – love, social, hope, gratitude - traits

• Highest in restraint and intellectual – “typical lawyer” strengths - that would correlate with higher grades

What did we Find? • Law students scored higher than

average in overall strengths intensity

• 3.78 mean vs. 3.72 US, 3.57 UK

• Top strengths- judgment, curiosity, love of learning (and capacity/love!)

• Bottom – modesty, spirituality, and self-regulation

• Women high gratitude - men, humor

Correlations between character strengths and law school performance (GPA)

• Strengths were positively correlated with higher undergraduate GPA – particularly the theological (.31)- spirituality, beauty app., and restraint (.21) traits

• But higher mean strengths scores were negatively correlated with law school grades (-.13)

• All were negative other than zest, humor, and forgiveness, which were neutral

• Effects relatively small

WORKSHOP DISCUSSION – WHAT DO YOU THINK?

• the best law students –at least as measured

by first year grades – may be those whose

personal strengths are not clearly expressed

or defined.

• The effect of character on success as a law

student is smaller than generally

thoughtLimitations

• Character was measured through the VIA

Survey, and may not be the most appropriate

vehicle for assessing law student personality

- the “typical lawyer” who can see both sides

might respond with 3’s

New Directions?

• What happens after graduation? Do certain strengths help lawyers be more successful despite grades?

• Does social Intelligence, etc., help a lawyer become partner despite bad grade point average?

THANK YOU! dabowling@gmail.com