title: Four illustrations of healthy personality: a prescription for living the good life.
abstract: This pilot study follows in the tradition of Jahoda in arguing that the study of the lives of psychologically healthy individuals can add to our understanding of mental health. The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) is used to identify four psychologically healthy middle-aged adults. The subjects also were asked to respond in essay form to a written open-ended question with regard to their beliefs as to the factors that have assisted them in living more effective lives. An idiographic approach is pursued in which the subjects' responses to the POI and the open-ended question are analyzed. It is noted that while the circumstances of the subjects' lives are diverse, there are seven basic commonalities in their behavioral approach to life tasks. It is conjectured that these behavioral qualities may be universal for emotionally healthy individuals and that future research with larger samples may bear this out.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Personality Assessment and Research, University of California, Berkeley.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hightower
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010684:Philosophy; D012945:Social Values