The healthy personality from a basic trait perspective.

Abstract

What basic personality traits characterize the psychologically healthy individual? The purpose of this paper was to address this question by generating an expert-consensus model of the healthy person in the context of the 30 facets (and five domains) of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) system of traits. In a first set of studies, we found that the healthy personality can be described, with a high level of agreement, in terms of the 30 facets of the NEO-PI-R. High levels of Openness to Feelings, Positive Emotions, and Straightforwardness, together with low levels on facets of Neuroticism were particularly indicative of healthy personality functioning. The expert-generated healthy personality profile was negatively correlated with profiles of pathological personality functioning and positively correlated with normative personality functioning. In a second set of studies, we matched the NEO-PI-R profiles of over 3,000 individuals from seven different samples with the expert-generated healthy prototype to yield a healthy personality index. This index was characterized by good retest reliability and cross-rater agreement, high rank-order stability, and substantial heritability. Individuals with high scores on the healthy personality index were psychologically well-adjusted, had high selfesteem, good self-regulatory skills, an optimistic outlook on the world, and a clear and stable self-view. These individuals were low in aggression and meanness, unlikely to exploit others, and were relatively immune to stress and self-sufficient. We discuss the results in the light of their implications for both research and theory on healthy personality functioning.

A longitudinal study on perceived health in cardiovascular patients: The role of conscientiousness, subjective wellbeing and cardiac self-efficacy

“…This might further increase the significance of the conscientiousness trait for patients’ quality of life. In relation to cardiovascular health, the present study supports the notion of healthy personality proposed recently by Bleidorn et al [43].…”

Fearless Dominance/Boldness Is Not Strongly Related to Externalizing Behaviors: An Item Response-Based Analysis

“…Berg et al, 2017). In fact, unlike other dimensions of psychopathy, the personality correlates of FD/B align strongly with expert ratings of “healthy personality” (Bleidorn et al, 2020).…”

Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies—A Framework for Studying Personality Change

“…Bleidorn et al, 2018). Indeed, evidence for the role of major life events, such as marriage, divorce, unemployment, or retirement, is more mixed than one would expect given the apparent emotional and behavioural relevance of these events (Asendorpf & Wilpers, 1998; Bleidorn & Schwaba, 2018; Denissen et al, 2019; Schwaba & Bleidorn, 2019; Specht et al, 2011; van Scheppingen, Denissen, Chung, Tambs, & Bleidorn, 2018; van Scheppingen, Denissen, & Bleidorn, 2018; for a review, see Bleidorn et al, 2018). The inconclusive nature of the current state of evidence may be partly explained by the scope and quality of previous studies, many of which were not explicitly designed to examine the links between life events and personality change.…”

“…While research on the specific genetic and biological sources of personality development remains rare (Lo et al, 2017; Penke & Jokela, 2016), a growing number of studies have examined the role of specific environmental influences, typically operationalized as life experiences in the domains of love, work, and health (Bleidorn et al, 2018; Denissen et al, 2019). For example, romantic relationship experiences—and the first romance in particular—have been associated with increases in levels of desirable traits such as emotional stability, self–esteem, and conscientiousness (Lehnart, Neyer, & Eccles, 2010; Luciano & Orth, 2017; Neyer & Asendorpf, 2001; Wagner et al, 2015).…”

“…Once a niche topic, personality development has become one of the most widely studied phenomena in personality science. There is now convincing evidence that personality traits continue to change throughout the lifespan (Bleidorn & Hopwood, 2019; Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006; Orth, Robins, & Widaman, 2012; Specht et al, 2014), sometimes in response to environmental influences (Bleidorn, Hopwood, & Lucas, 2018), including purposeful interventions (Roberts et al, 2017). These findings would appear to provide a solid foundation for a deeper understanding of the sources and processes that drive personality change.…”