If someone asked you to describe your own personality, could you do it?
It's hard to have a true perspective on your own personality traits and how you express them in the world.
If you've never taken a personality test or read much about your personality type, you probably rely on the feedback you've heard about yourself from others about your personality traits.
“He's really outgoing.”
“She can be argumentative.”
“He's always uptight.”
“She has such a calm demeanor.”
We take these descriptions and use them to help us craft what we believe to be our “personality.”
Also, over time we learn things about ourselves — our preferences, how we behave in certain situations, and how we interact with others.
If we pay attention to our words and actions, we can assimilate and recognize more traits that make up our personalities.
In general, personality consists of the recurring patterns of thoughts, emotions, characteristics, and behaviors that make a person unique.
It arises from within each individual and remains fairly consistent and permanent throughout life.
Research suggests that personality types are also influenced by biological processes and needs.
Want to know the difference between personality vs character, go to this post.
There are a number of theories about how our personalities develop, including personality type theories (like the Myers Briggs type) and personality trait theories.
The personality trait theory suggests that individual personalities are made up of broad dispositions, and many modern researchers believe there are five core personality traits.
What are the 5 Main Personality Traits?
Extraversion Personality Trait
Including personality traits such as excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.
Agreeableness Personality Trait
Attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors.
A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
Conscientiousness Personality Trait
High levels of thoughtfulness, good impulse control, and goal-directed behaviors.
Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details, as well as act dutifully, aim for achievement, and prefer planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
Neuroticism Personality Trait
Tendency to experience emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness, as well as having a low tolerance for stress.
Openness Personality Trait
Personality traits such as imagination and insight, and a broad range of interests, as well as: intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety.
Understanding more about our own personalities can help in how we relate to the people close to us — and help them understand us better.
It can also improve the way we work and learn, as we know more about our natural traits and how we can work with them rather than against them.
List of 600 Personality Traits
Dig deeper into your personality and the characteristics that comprise it with our list below.
Positive Personality Traits
Accessible Active Adaptable Admirable Adventurous Agreeable Alert Amiable Anticipative Appreciative Articulate Aspiring Athletic Attractive Balanced Benevolent Brilliant Calm Capable Captivating Caring Challenging Charismatic Charming Cheerful Clean Clear-headed Clever Colorful Companionly Compassionate Conciliatory Confident Conscientious Considerate Constant Contemplative Cooperative Courageous Courteous Creative Cultured Curious Daring Debonair Decent Decisive Dedicated Deep Dignified Directed Disciplined Discreet Dramatic Dutiful Dynamic Earnest Ebullient Educated Efficient Elegant Eloquent Empathetic Energetic Enthusiastic Esthetic Exciting Extraordinary Fair Faithful Farsighted Felicific Firm Flexible Focused Forceful Forgiving Forthright Freethinking Friendly Fun-loving Gallant Generous Gentle Genuine Good-natured Gracious Hardworking Healthy Hearty Helpful Heroic High-minded Honest Honorable Humble Humorous Idealistic Imaginative Impressive Incisive Incorruptible Independent Individualistic Innovative Inoffensive Insightful Insouciant Intelligent Intuitive Invulnerable Kind Knowledge Leader Leisurely | Liberal Logical Lovable Loyal Lyrical Magnanimous Many-sided Masculine Mature Methodical Meticulous Moderate Modest Multi-leveled Neat Objective Observant Open Optimistic Orderly Organized Original Painstaking Passionate Patient Patriotic Peaceful Perceptive Perfectionist Personable Persuasive Playful Polished Popular Practical Precise Principled Profound Protean Protective Providential Prudent Punctual Purposeful Rational Realistic Reflective Relaxed Reliable Resourceful Respectful Responsible Responsive Reverential Romantic Rustic Sage Sane Scholarly Scrupulous Secure Selfless Self-critical Self-defacing Self-denying Self-reliant Self-sufficent Sensitive Sentimental Seraphic Serious Sexy Sharing Shrewd Simple Skillful Sober Sociable Solid Sophisticated Spontaneous Sporting Stable Steadfast Steady Stoic Strong Studious Suave Subtle Sweet Sympathetic Systematic Tasteful Teacherly Thorough Tidy Tolerant Tractable Trusting Uncomplaining Understanding Undogmatic Upright Urbane Venturesome Vivacious Warm Well-bred Well-read Well-rounded Winning Wise Witty Youthful |
Even Personality Traits
Absentminded Aggressive Ambitious Amusing Artful Ascetic Authoritarian Big-thinking Boyish Breezy Businesslike Busy Casual Cerebral Chummy Circumspect Competitive Complex Confidential Conservative Contradictory Crisp Cute Deceptive Determined Dominating Dreamy Driving Droll Dry Earthy Effeminate Emotional Enigmatic Experimental Familial Folksy Formal Freewheeling Frugal Glamorous Guileless High-spirited Hurried Hypnotic Iconoclastic Idiosyncratic Impassive Impersonal Impressionable Intense Invisible Irreligious Irreverent Maternal | Mellow Modern Moralistic Mystical Neutral Noncommittal Noncompetitive Obedient Old-fashioned Ordinary Outspoken Paternalistic Physical Placid Political Predictable Preoccupied Private Progressive Proud Pure Questioning Quiet Religious Reserved Restrained Retiring Sarcastic Self-conscious Sensual Skeptical Smooth Soft Solemn Solitary Stern Strict Stubborn Stylish Subjective Surprising Soft Tough Unaggressive Unambitious Unceremonious Unchanging Undemanding Unfathomable Unhurried Uninhibited Unpatriotic Unpredictable Unsentimental Whimsical |
Negative Personality Traits
Abrasive Abrupt Agonizing Aggressive Aimless Aloof Amoral Angry Anxious Apathetic Arbitrary Argumentative Arrogant Artificial Asocial Bewildered Bizarre Bland Blunt Boisterous Brittle Brutal Calculating Callous Cantankerous Careless Charmless Childish Clumsy Coarse Cold Colorless Complacent Complaining Compulsive Conceited Condemnatory Conformist Confused Contemptible Conventional Cowardly Crass Crazy Criminal Critical Crude Cruel Cynical Decadent Deceitful Delicate Demanding Dependent Desperate Destructive Devious Difficult Disconcerting Discontented Discouraging Discourteous Dishonest Disloyal Disobedient Disorderly Disorganized Disputatious Disrespectful Disruptive Dissonant Distractible Disturbing Dogmatic Domineering Dull Easily Discouraged Egocentric Envious Erratic Escapist Extravagant Extreme Faithless False Fanatical Fanciful Fatalistic Fawning Fearful Fickle Fiery Fixed Flamboyant Foolish Forgetful Fraudulent Frightening Frivolous Gloomy Graceless Greedy Grim Gullible Hateful Haughty Hedonistic Hesitant Hidebound High-handed Hostile Ignorant Imitative Impatient Impractical Imprudent Impulsive Inconsiderate Incurious Indecisive Indulgent Inert Inhibited Insecure Insensitive Insincere Insulting Intolerant Irascible | Irrational Irresponsible Irritable Lazy Malicious Mannerless Mechanical Meddlesome Melancholic Messy Miserable Miserly Misguided Mistaken Money-minded Moody Morbid Muddle-headed Naive Narcissistic Narrow Narrow-minded Negative Neglectful Neurotic Nihilistic Obnoxious Obsessive Obvious Odd Offhand One-dimensional One-sided Opinionated Opportunistic Oppressed Outrageous Paranoid Passive Pedantic Perverse Petty Plodding Pompous Possessive Power-hungry Predatory Prejudiced Presumptuous Pretentious Prim Procrastinating Provocative Puritanical Quirky Reactionary Reactive Regimental Regretful Repentant Repressed Resentful Ridiculous Rigid Ritualistic Ruined Sadistic Sanctimonious Scheming Scornful Secretive Sedentary Selfish Self-indulgent Shallow Shortsighted Sloppy Slow Sly Small-thinking Softheaded Sordid Steely Stiff Stupid Submissive Superficial Superstitious Suspicious Tactless Tasteless Tense Thievish Thoughtless Timid Transparent Treacherous Trendy Troublesome Unappreciative Uncaring Uncharitable Unconvincing Uncooperative Uncreative Uncritical Unctuous Undisciplined Unfriendly Ungrateful Unhealthy Unimaginative Unimpressive Unlovable Unpolished Unprincipled Unrealistic Unreflective Unreliable Unrestrained Unstable Vacuous Vague Venomous Vindictive Vulnerable Weak Willful |
What is your personality type? Take quiz to discover your personality type.
More Related Articles:
What Is The Most Introverted Personality Type?
Why ENFP And INFJ Personalities Make A Good Match
Similarities And Differences Between INTP and INTJ
How will you use these personality traits?
Now that you've reviewed this list of personality traits, do you better understand your own personality?
Are you able to recognize both positive and negative traits and how they affect your life, relationships, and career success?
You can use your new knowledge of your personality traits to your advantage in the following ways:
- You'll be more able to understand other people and why they behave as they do.
- You'll better understand your own likes and dislikes and why you have them.
- You'll know how to build on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.
- You'll have more awareness of the type of career that is best suited to your personality.
Take the time to consider your personality traits and what they mean for you and your happiness in life.
Even small changes that support these traits can make a big difference in your well-being.
Thanks for a great post. I had no idea there were many different types. I always wondered why I never seem to fit in one group but now I understand why. They are so many positive, negative and neutrals that I am never completely cover all that I am. This will help me to more understand why I behave the way I do and feel. I will constantly refer to this list.
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this outstanding blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this site with my Facebook group. Talk soon!
Thanks, it helped me study I used 200 of them.
This list is AWESOME!! It is great to see that someone compiled this thorough of a list. I am passionate about studying fragmentation\shadow work so looking at how we project what we wrte yaught was negative off ourselvescan onto others. I am looking at how all traits are possible aspects of the wholeness of being human. So that means that there are no truly negative traits. Only our own judgments from our past experience. If one can embrace all of these traits without judgment then we can learn to be unconditionally loving to our own selves. And since we are no longer fragmented into believing that some traits are good and some are bad we can also be unconditionally loving with others. Thank you so much for this list!
one word. AMAZING
List is awesome, but is it me or this list isn’t 600.
Great
Great.
This helped me a lot to finish my project and this helps me to figure what I am and what I can do. 🙂
This list has one positive list and three negative lists, which include negatives like cute, effeminate, whimsical, folksy, quiet, and trendy. Apparently I’m a really shitty person. <3
I just Love this list!! It helped me a lot on making personalities for my characters in my game I am hoping to make a reality. I really appreciate it! <3
Useful list, but sexist. If “masculine” is a positive trait, “feminine” should be listed as a positive trait as well.
Um… sorry, but how can a list be sexist?
I never comment on these things but GREAT POST. WOW!