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As far as deciding what traits to give a character goes: I feel like a lot of my characters just show up in my head and say “Hi, here I am,” with most of their personality pretty well developed. So for me, it’s not so much a matter of giving them traits as it is just recording what’s already there. But some things that do inform traits:

• Family life. (This one is SUPER important, just saying.)
• Cultural expectations connected to the character’s gender, rank, race, etc.
• Worldview/religion.
• What traits your character needs to have for the story to work.
• Potential interaction with other characters.

As far as keeping traits unified and balanced: the absolute best piece of advice I’ve ever received on this topic is that a character’s bad traits are really just their good traits coming out in a bad way. On the flip side, good traits can sometimes be bad traits used in a good way. Ajaj hit on this a bit, but I’m going to expand a bit using some of my characters.

• Katelyn Stevens is determined, loyal, bold, and quick-thinking. All of these are good traits; they make her a good soldier, a good magic-user, and a great friend. When someone or something she cares about is in danger, she’s the first in the fight and the last to give up. But each trait has its bad side. She’s determined — which means she’s also stubborn and doesn’t always let go of things she should. She’s loyal — which means she’ll act recklessly to help her friends, or follow people she shouldn’t be following. She’s bold — which, again, sometimes translates into acting or speaking recklessly. She’s quick-thinking — but sometimes the things she’s quick to think of aren’t solutions, but rather potential problems.
• Breen is dutiful, sensitive, and very in tune with the physical world around her. Again, good traits. Dutiful: she cares about her family and those around her and wants to do what’s right by them. Sensitive: she’s aware of her emotions and thoughts. In tune with the physical world: she’s good with her hands and at making things with her hands (especially mechanical things). But her dutifulness means she stays in a bad situation even when offered an escape, her sensitivity means that she becomes easily depressed, and the amount she’s in tune with her surroundings means she’s also very aware when something’s wrong in those surroundings and it bugs her a lot.
• Poppy is quick-witted, protective, and very emotionally resilient/stable. Once again, good traits, but they can turn bad. Quick-witted: she quickly thinks through problems and can dance through conversations easily, but she also may jump to conclusions or say something snarky that she’ll later regret. Protective: she loves her family and will do anything to help them . . . but anything can sometimes mean she’ll go too far, or that she’ll put her family high above where they should be. Emotionally resilient/stable: she’s not bothered by a whole lot and can put a lot of effort into comforting others, but she may also suppress any internal threats to that stability because she feels like she needs to remain the stable, strong one.

So, yeah. That’s basically my thought on creating a balanced, unified character: don’t give them explicitly good or bad traits; give them traits in general that may play out in good or bad ways (and possibly tend to play out more frequently on one side or the other).