10 Healthy Personality Traits Key for Psychological Health

We’re all unique people, with specific dispositions, preferences, and aversions. These components are what make you, you, and while there are no rights or wrongs with regard to any permutation of these factors, there are certain healthy personality traits scientifically connected to being psychologically well-adjusted.

According to research published in the journal Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10 healthy personality traits that are key for your mental well-being. In the first of three studies, researchers asked 137 experts in trait psychology to describe their idea of a psychologically healthy person using the NEO Psychological Inventory, Revised, which groups 240 items into 30 narrower personality traits. This inventory is also a longer version of the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory that examines a person’s Big Five personality traits.

The Big Five has become a popular personality indicator that can “be used for individuals to learn about themselves and their strengths, or it can be used by organizations to predict success,” Katy Caselli, an organizational psychologist who specializes in personality frameworks, previously told Well+Good. The Big Five quiz (here’s a free one you can take online) includes a series of questions that you can respond to with a range of answers between “disagree strongly” and “agree strongly.” Based on your answers, you’ll learn where on a spectrum of zero to 100 you fall on the Big Five personality traits:

1. Openness to experience
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

Crucially, the Big Five test won’t tell you whether you’re extraverted per se, but whether you score low in extraversion. With this scale in mind, the study researchers examining healthy personality traits pinpointed definitions of what constitutes a”healthy personality,” based on levels of given traits, many of which connect to the Big Five.

According to the report, “healthy personality functioning can be best characterized by high levels of openness to feelings, positive emotions, and straightforwardness, and low levels on all facets of neuroticism.” On a more granular level, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, names 10 specific personality traits in Scientific American (to see where you fall on the scale, you can take an online test created by Dr. Kaufman).

1. Openness to feelings
2. Straightforwardness (and being “frank, sincere, and ingenuous”)
3. Competence
4. Warmth (being affectionate and friendly)
5. Positive emotions (experiencing “joy, happiness, love, and excitement”)
6. Low levels of angry hostility
7. Low anxiety (not being “shy, fearful, nervous, tensed, and restless”)
8. Low depression
9. Low vulnerability to stress
10. Low impulsivity (being able to control cravings and urges)

Factors that influence healthy personality traits

You don’t have to have all those personality traits to have a healthy life, though, Dr. Kaufman is quick to point out. Rather, “the key determination [for psychological health] is the extent to which low scores on this profile block you from reaching your personal goals,” he says.

In two additional studies, the researchers compared these trait profiles to over 3,000 students, and found that the traits were associated with greater life satisfaction, more self-esteem, self-sufficiency, being more optimistic, having less anger and aggression, and having more self-control. But what can you do if you don’t score high naturally in these traits?

The good news is you’re totally not doomed to life a life without healthy personality traits, no matter what your natural personality makeup is. It’s possible that you can mindfully shift facets of your personality over time to work in better in alignment with your goals. For instance, if you can identify that you’re closed off to feelings, then you can be more mindful of opening up to vulnerabilities moving forward. While you may never change your natural inclinations (nor should you—your unique predispositions are what makes you, you!), being aware of where you fall on the scale of healthy personality traits can help you, well, level up how mentally healthy you can be.

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