Researchers
believe that certain personality traits are "healthful" because they
are conducive to leading a happier, healthier life, while others are
"unhealthful." In a new study, they explain which traits are which
and why.
To "map
out" a person's personality, psychologists will assess how they score on
five key personality traits. These traits are extraversion, openness to
experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism.
However, each
of these five personality traits comprises numerous other characteristics that
help define personality.
A team of
researchers from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) believes that
some of these personality-defining characteristics are the building blocks of a
healthy personality, while others may stand in the way of happiness and
success.
In their new
study, which features in the Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, the researchers consider which of the 30 facets
of the five key personality traits help define a "healthy
personality" and which also relate to different types of behavior.
"We
believe our results have both practical implications for the assessment of and
research on health personality functioning as well as deeper implications for
theories about psychological adaption and functioning," says the study's
lead author, Wiebke Bleidorn, an associate professor of psychology at UC Davis.
"In addition to
providing a comprehensive description of a psychologically healthy individual
in terms of basic traits, the profile generated and tested provides a practical
assessment tool for research on health personality functioning."
Wiebke Bleidorn
The
'healthy' personality profile
The
researchers conducted their study in two parts. First, they asked trait
psychology experts to try to describe what a "healthy personality"
would look like using the 30 facets of the five key personality traits.
As part of
this expert-consensus approach, they also sought the opinion of experts in
positive psychology, which is the branch of psychology that focuses on people's
virtues and positive traits, and the perspective of undergraduate psychology
students.
In the second
part of their study, the investigators collected and analyzed data from more
than 3,000 study participants. They mapped out each participant's personality,
which they then compared with the profile that the first part of the study had
generated.
As the
researchers expected, both the experts and the students who they interviewed in
the first part of their study suggested that an individual with a healthy
personality would score highly in the facets belonging to the traits of
extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, but
would have relatively low scores in facets of neuroticism.
More
specifically, the researchers say, "the expert-generated profile suggested
that psychologically healthy individuals have particularly high scores on
Openness to Feelings and low scores on Angry Hostility." They add,
"Other top-rated facets were Warmth, Positive Emotions,
Straightforwardness, and Competence. Facets rated as particularly low were
Depressiveness and Vulnerability."
"People
in general, no matter whether they are experts or not, seem to have quite a
clear idea of what a healthy personality looks like," says Bleidorn.
Moreover,
according to the existing body of research that the researchers took into
account, it appears that these key personality traits could predict certain
outcomes, including a person's state of health, self-esteem, academic
performance, relationship quality, and performance at work.
Some
intriguing findings
Looking at
the data from the second part of their study, the researchers confirmed that
those participants who had healthy personality profiles seemed to be better
adjusted in life. These individuals had higher self-esteem, a sense of clarity
and optimism, and an aversion to aggression and antisocial behaviors.
They also
reported being better able to resist temptation, self-regulate behaviors, and
stay focused on the task at hand.
However, it
was the participants who had traits relating to narcissism and psychopathy that
allowed the researchers to form a more detailed idea of what a "healthy
personality" might look like.
The study
results showed that individuals with "healthy personality" profiles
tend to score lower in exploitativeness but relatively high in grandiosity and
self-sufficiency, despite all of these traits having an association with
narcissism.
The
investigators observe that similar trends applied to characteristics with
measures of psychopathy. Participants with "healthy personalities,"
they note, tended to score low on maladaptive characteristics, such as
disinhibition and blaming the negative effects of their actions on others.
However, they scored higher on other characteristics that are potentially less
harmful, such as immunity to stress and
boldness.
If you are
curious to find out how you would score and whether or not you have a
"healthy personality," you can take the test that the study authors
designed here.
Source: Medical News Today
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