ABSTRACT
Personality theorists are not uniformly fluid in their basic orientation, but their field of study at least requires a holistic outlook. One need make only a casual survey of extant definitions of optimal personality to discover that they constitute a heterogeneous array of variably overlapping concepts. Most conspicuous is the adjustment concept. In terms of such a concept, the optimal person is one who achieves a smooth existence. The medical theoretical model seems a rather inadequate basis for conceptualizing the optimal personality, just as it is for conceptualizing personality in general. Many of the attempts to find a theoretically sounder basis for an optimal personality concept involve some notion of intra-individual consistency. In treatments of the optimal personality, one can find many views regarding the nature of the potentials that an individual can realize or actualize. There has been a growing interest in openness to experience in general as a core quality of the optimal personality.
