The Character Assessment Scale (CAS) is for people who see and express themselves as Christians. It is a free, secure, anonymous online test that measures beliefs and habits relating to moral character as defined in the Bible - fruits of the spirit and fruits of the flesh. To keep it free and secure, it is published by the 501(c)3 Wellness Education for Living and Loving, WELL Inc.

The descriptions of the CAS scales and the wording of its original items were finalized by nine people: two psychologists, two seminary professors, two pastors, and two less educated general readers, all under the direction Dr. Wayne Oates. Dr. Oates received the American Psychiatric Association’s Oskar Pfister Award for his contribution to psychiatry and religion, and was distinguished professor of pastoral psychology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He was the primary author of over 20 books.

The CAS’ author is clinical psychologist Paul F. Schmidt. Dr Schmidt wrote the original items, did the validating research, and then presented a program on the CAS to the American Psychological Association at its annual convention in Los Angeles in 1981. Ten thousand of these tests were used in ten countries around the world until its second printing sold out. In 2024, he slightly rephrased some of the original 225 items to make them more current, and then made the test available free to today’s online readers.

Scripture offers several major guides to how we should believe and conduct ourselves, including Abraham’s first covenant in Genesis 12, the ten commandments, the book of Proverbs, Jesus’ sermon on the mount, and Jesus’ two great commandments. In all these places, the Bible tells us that these guidelines are given for our well-being and for others, so that we’d live long, healthy, and fruitful lives. Taken together, they provide a model of moral character, a Biblical guide to the good life.

In these passages, the interplay of spirit and flesh pictures the forces of life and death as they act upon human lives and groups. This dynamic model has been around for 3000 years, and it began when King Solomon asked for and received wisdom (I Kings 3). Then God spread it all over the western world, as prophetic healers along with political and cultural leaders often visited Jerusalem. Solomon’s hospitality and superior wisdom (I Kings 4: 29-34) made Jerusalem the world’s first international learning center. The teachings of this Solomonic model contrast life and death, wise and foolish, good and bad as they are manifest in different beliefs and behaviors, just as the CAS does.

This worldview was dramatically portrayed in different cultural versions of the Soul Journey. In this old story, the hero goes through various trials, troubles, and temptations, bravely battling forces of death, always seeking the pathway to the good or eternal life. African, Arabian, Egyptian, Persian, and Syrian cultures all had similar stories, contrasting wise and foolish choices in very similar ways. Through Solomon, this same theory carried these timeless teachings into all three major religions of the Western world: Judaism, Islam, and finally Christianity.

For 3000 years, this traditional model was the predominant theory in the western world of how to distinguish right from wrong, wise from foolish, good from bad, healthy from sickening. It has guided the construction of laws for nations, businesses, and families. But about 100 years ago, the modern healthcare and psychotherapy industries brought us out of a world depression by selling us on the profit-making potential of symptom relief, whatever makes me feel better now. They preached the illusion that problems in life can be solved merely by purchasing professional products and procedures. Using wisdom from the Bible, the CAS helps me and others feel and live better now and in the long run. 

Just as life and death really grow in opposite directions, so do the spirit and the flesh. As defined by Solomon, Jesus, and Paul, the fruits of the spirit produce caring, freedom, gratitude, cooperation, strength, and growth. These mindsets and lifestyles are supernatural, and work rather invisibly, inspiring us to take care of the flesh, the natural created order.

By contrast, fruits of the flesh are natural beliefs and behaviors that leave us alone when we’re doing good. But when we turn to them, and breathe these attitudes in and out, they drain the life out of us, and out of our families and groups. These natural attitudes focusing on the visible world all bring the opposite of the spirit: apathy, bondage, complaint, division, weakness, and decay. (By even further contrast, evil tries to kill the good in people, groups, and causes.)

Flesh and spirit flow into us and out of us in a full, invisible circle. In complete cycles, what goes into us comes back out (Matt 6: 22-3), and what we put out comes back into us (Gal 6: 7-8). The fruits of the flesh or the spirit that we “eat” (take in with our senses and thoughts) come in and then go back out, as the fruits we bear for others to eat. The world we create is also creating us. That’s why symptom relief doesn’t last. Therefore the CAS defines moral character as whatever does the most good (and the least harm) for the most people over the long run.

This definition and the traits the CAS measures have been validated through forty years of research. We can see now that each of the nine character strengths make it easier to grow all the other strengths, and to outgrow all the weaknesses. Every single one of the CAS’ 294 flesh and spirit traits showed scale interrelations in the predicted direction, all at highly significant levels of probability. So we now have widely published proof that the visible and natural flesh does indeed drain out the invisible and supernatural spirit, proof that the spirit of life does indeed bring well-being to the flesh.

Wise traits are presented in a green, to suggest growth, and a signal to go this way. These mindsets and lifestyles lead to life, wisdom, and goodness.

Contrasting foolish traits are presented in a red-orange fire. Its red is for stop, and shows infection; its orange shows the consuming flames of a garbage dump. These mindsets and lifestyles are what the Bible calls bad, ungodly, foolish, and leading to death. These weaknesses are actually the 1500-year-old seven deadly sins, plus the eighth sin of lying, all still popular and widely discussed today.

The neutral color of tan shows the moral resources that can have either a good or bad effect, depending on how they are employed. This racial-mixture, soil-tone tan reminds all humans of our humus, the earth from which we have all been made. In short, the CAS feedback summarizes how the Bible tells us to see and treat ourselves and others, and then how we measure up. It is a measure of moral character, and also of personal well-being, often referred to as “the good life.”

Two different versions of this test are now available. The Online CAS is now being constructed from the original 225 true-false questions measuring eight pairs of traits. Now it will include the night dimension of peace/safety, and measure fear as a fruit of the flesh, and faith as a fruit of the spirit. The old items are also being updated and slightly abbreviated for more clarity.

The Character Assessment Scale – Mini (CAS-M) is now available as a quicker test to measure the same things, also online. Its items are brand new, streamlined for both clarity and brevity. It has only 72 items (four for each of the 18 scales). They are scored on a modified true-false format: the reader can choose between mostly true, mixed (about as much true as false), and mostly false. Its scores are not given in percentiles, but numbers ranging from 1 to 9, where 1–3 is low, 4–6 is average, and 7–9 is high. The CAS-M is a quick screening for the 18 moral character traits, and it only requires about 15 minutes to take, slightly less than half the time of the full CAS.

It asks for 18 general pieces of demographic information for ongoing research. The categories of possible answers are so general that even if the answers given to these personal questions were known, they could not identify the person. Moreover, they cannot be seen by anyone but test-takers, in the test feedback which is sent only to them at whatever email address they provide. The purpose for asking these questions is “to find out what makes us sick, and how to get well,” the mission statement of WELL Inc.

Asbury University is now doing research with its students using the CAS-M, to benefit the university and to help validate the test. WELL oversees all the research that’s discovering more causes and effects of personal well-being and character. It studies how scores relate to age, marital status, and beliefs and habits with respect to issues such as gender, faith, family, and religion.

Emailed test feedback is sent in less than a minute. As explained below, it provides many ways people can use this information for their personal healing and spiritual growth. It directs them to free online resources at mynewlife.com. It carries links to new free resources. Staff and volunteers with WELL will be creating and curating more of these resources, to make sure they are compatible with this Biblical model for the good life which the test is based upon.

1. Naming their Problems Respondents are instructed to list and describe a few of their most painful relationships, emotions, and habits. Exercises they can download will help them see these problems as caused by both external situations and internal mindsets. Each one stimulates the other. Pushing others to change often makes them resist, by pushing back in criticism or pressure against the pusher. Learning to calm themselves better is often (over time) soothing to others, or else it pushes them to disengage, and seek someone else to take their problems away.

2. Evaluating themselves From their CAS feedback and from self-reflection, they are encouraged to list which beliefs and habits they consider their character strengths, the ones that like wellsprings are inspiring new life within them. They also learn to list their character weaknesses, the mindsets and lifestyles that like whirlpools are draining the life out of them. The 24 learning tools (see 5. below) explicitly teach them how and why to change these foolish beliefs and habits.

3. Evaluating their relationships Our outline helps respondents list several People, Associations, and Dreams (PADs) that put good life (the nine moral resources) into them (from mindsets of overflowing fullness, wellsprings). They learn how to evaluate their relationships with people, groups, and dreams by looking at who leads these PADs and who follows them. They study where the money, time, and power of these people come from, and where these assets go. Then are able to list their own PADs that are draining these nine life-giving resources out of them (from mindsets of draining emptiness, whirlpools).

4. Setting goals Respondents are taught to make several faith goals that they feel led by God to experience in the future with each problem situation they encounter. These experiences will glorify God, and will require God’s help. Respondents will also benefit from making goals for their works, things they can do to show their love for God, others, and themselves. They find better ways to resolve any problem situation, to see it, approach it, and respond to it differently.

5. Use the tools They learn to download and apply the 27 Learning Tools (nine sets of Psychological Insights, Parenting Tips, and Scriptural Guidance). Likewise, they are invited to use both the Good Life Tools and the Problem-solving Tools that will help them heal, grow, and deal with any problem that life may bring. They use the flowchart to help them see the invisible flow of Holy Spirit power coming through others into them, and through them into others. These tools and charts are only part of what’s available with our secure educational websites, to-the-well.org and mynewlife.com.

6. Getting connected This step is the most helpful of all, and the most often neglected. They are taught to get a Christian sister or brother, friend, sponsor, pastor, professional counselor, or connect with the person who shared this test with them. Who can they trust? “You will know them by their fruits,” Jesus told his disciples in the sermon on the mount (Matt 7:16 -20), NSRV. They are encouraged to seek godly people to share with them their time, wisdom, encouragement, solutions, prayers, connections, and life stories. Those who agree to help will teach respondents how to understand all this, and will help them make and carry out all their goals. Finally, respondents are instructed to invite others to take the CAS, so they can share their results and plans with each other. This can also be done if they follow downloadable instructions to join or create a support group.

The CAS can be used with your business, department, school, class, or church. At no cost of time or money for training or materials, as your group’s leader or leadership team, you can ask or require people in your group or organization to take this test. You can explain how it is designed for their own inspiration, which will inspire the entire organization. It can either be taken on their own time or on company time. If taking the test is optional, to increase participation, you can provide compensation, perhaps from sponsors. Your people should be encouraged to discuss their test feedback with a counselor.

If they put your email address into the Group Administrator Email question on their test, you can get a free report emailed to you every quarter that you use the test, with summary information telling you:
Your group’s 27 average scores for that quarter, to evaluate your group and its progress
The percentage of your people who gave every possible answer to the demographic questions
An alphabetized list of every email address that received scores (so you can scratch off those email addresses when credit or compensation is given to each person who turns their email address into you).

 It can be very helpful to give this test at regular intervals, to assess progress or decline for your group over time. If your organization provides counseling or pastoral care for its members, those caretakers can take the test themselves to see how they also benefit from rising to the challenges of their own feedback. When respondents bring their feedback into a counseling session, to help them get to the bottom of their problems and start coming back out, counselors can help them more when a group member voluntarily brings to them the feedback provided by this test.