Does your personality make you feel good? Discover

Researchers at the University of California have created a test to identify the personality profile most related to mental health.

By
Ingrid Luisa

heure_accès

Nov 29, 2018, 6:25 pm

(Chris Madden / Getty Images)

Have you ever heard of "healthy personality"? Canadian psychologist Sidney Jourard, author of several books on the subject, defines it as follows: "A healthy personality is a way of acting guided by intelligence and respect for life, in order to satisfy his personal needs and to grow with they are aware, competent and able to love each other, to preserve the natural environment and other people. "

Does this sound like a semi-abstract definition? Essentially, these are features that provide people with good mental health. The humanists of the 1950s and 1960s cited some examples: to have more positive emotions than negative in everyday life, to be open and open to new possibilities, to rely on one's own experience and abilities, to accept oneself even, resist stress and develop a warm with each other.

But how do we know if we have healthy personalities? Is your personality good for you? Researchers at the University of California have decided to create a model to test this.

First and foremost, scientists have described the "healthy personality" using the terms of the famous Big 5, one of the ways to attest to the most scientifically proven personalities in the world. This model divides the personality into 5 general characteristics: neuroticism (or emotional instability), extroversion, sociability (or pleasantness), scrupulosity (or consciousness that measures self-discipline) and opening to new experiences.

A lot of research shows that the five main traits described in Big 5 are stable, heritable and can predict the consequences of life, such as health, self-esteem, academic performance, marital quality and even work performance.

From this, the researchers first generated a basic characteristics profile of a hypothetical individual with a 100% healthy personality. They then used data from 3,000 participants to check if the supposed health profile was applicable to real people. And they found that yes: a weak neuroticism, associated with a high level of openness to experiences and extroversion, are features common to successful personalities.

To find out if you have a healthy personality or not, scientists have created a test with the results of the research. You answer short, straightforward questions about socialization, self-esteem, self-awareness, urges, attention, and more. From there and other information that you provide (such as age, gender and even the country of origin), the site provides an analysis of personality traits – and even comments on the strengths and weaknesses of its results!

You can take the test in this link! It's in English, but the questions are short and simple (nothing that a Google search solves).