Depth Interview II. General Adjustment, Mental Health and Some Character Traits

Abstract

The relations reported in this chapter seem all to point to the fact that inner security and easy, unequivocal relations and attitudes to the social environment are related to better general adjustment and mental health. The character traits under discussion include feelings of superiority, of equality and of inferiority, extraversion and introversion, more or less strict conscience, and the tendency more or less to change in one’s convictions. The findings seem to be of interest for the study of interrelations between mental health and personal adjustment. Inferiority feelings, symptomatic of inner insecurity, are related to both general adjustment and mental health, as is the case with having a more or less strict conscience, and perhaps with more or less changing convictions. Present extraversion facilitates general adjustment, but is not related to mental health. These facts will have to be taken into due account when we develop an operational theory on mental health and personal adjustment in Part III.