Personality's Role in One's Mental Health and Circumstances

Results from a recently published long-term study suggest that for the average person, ‘positive characteristics’ can be more beneficial than ‘negative characteristics’ when it comes to minimizing the risks of developing certain mental conditions and over-suffering from life's stresses/problems. First to identify"positive/good" and "negative/bad" characteristics, one needs to understand what defines a personality, which in the words of Christian Jarret, the author of the post, "Your Personality May Affect Your Vulnerability to Mental Health Problems”, on the Research Digest, are, "behavioural tendencies, your habits of thought and ways of relating to the world…." This definition of a personality can be used as a basis when identifying "positive/good" and "negative/bad" character traits, as the words themselves are pretty sufficiently able to describe how society generally perceives these traits.

Throughout the time that this study was conducted, the subjects who were said to have higher levels of neuroticism than extraversion (as determined by tests completed the participants), which are personalities that have quick and overreactions to problems, had increased anxiety and depression rates compared to those who had more extraversion than neuroticism. Meanwhile individuals who display aggressive and neurotic personality traits more than extraversion were more likely to develop an internalizing disorder (which are depression and/or anxiety related mental conditions) It's important to note that everyone has negative and positive personality traits in them, but we all just have them in different quantities and levels which is what allows for such mental diversity in society.