I think there's plenty of examples in literature (fantasy as well as sci-fi) of where mankind fits into a "universal" spectrum of different race qualities.
The regular/lazy assumption is that we're bog-average. Some smarts, some strength, some imagination, etc, but by means not the smartest (or dumbest) or strongest (or weakest) or more imaginative (or unimaginative), and on and on... There's always the "hulking great whatnot" aliens (or trolls or troll-likes, in fantasy) who are basically dumb (in our assessment, but the more imaginative representations show them as not actually totally thick, just differently thinking), while there are also the pale, fragile, perhaps even traditionalist and hide-bound aliens, few in number and resolutely non-expansionist who have knowledge (and perhaps also intelligence) beyond our wildest dreams. If a creature is weak, stupid, works as a slave-race[1], etc, then it probably breeds like bally-ho. Even further along those lines, consider Tribbles!
In these "humans are average" versions, we're given "bravery" (usually "against all odds") as an exceptional aspect to us. Or (because we're a young race, not yet satisfied, hyper-expansionist, perhaps foolishly so. That can probably be attributed as much to the needs of plot as any actual comparison with other races. We could be "DobbyThe House Elf"s, compared to others, or sloth-like.
Sometimes we're shown to be the most warlike, or the most peaceful (but, as needs demand, adapting ourselves to equal the ferocity of our opponents). So sometimes we're Starship Troopers or Space Marines or Nazis(/Red Army) In Space, sometimes we're all mostly like Ripley (as she started off). Or we're just a young kid who had a dream of a 'circuit', or Doctor Zarkov in a well-meaning but (potentially) "Nice Job Breaking It Hero" attempt to make peaceful contact with an (it turns out) petulant and warfare-orientated extrasolar collection of civilisations. Rinse and repeat with many other 'racial qualities'.
So what is 'universal' insofar as a cross-stellar race? Expansionism, probably. At least at first, but how quickly? Do they 'seed' as many adjacent planets with 'suicide settlements' as they can, or are they cautious, perhaps only moving out of their home system due to a dying sun or threatening local conditions... or did they get given their initial "jump" by another race (willingly or not)? And once they've got their 'empire' (or some form of trade network) do they expand further? The "Neanderthals" of the book "Heaven" (Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart) are a trader race who do not colonise but are spread wide and far in their dealings with all kinds of other alien species. When you've gotten your own particular interstellar niche (at least until some other race wanders in and disturbs the balance), how much further might you want to expand, and what further ambitions might you have? Perhaps you don't. And you work with the rules set by the community you've joined.
Intelligence. Hmmm... Well, various levels of panspermia hypothetically occur without intelligence. Whether it's microbe (or biogenic precusor) spread or "space spores" or other plant-like seed dispersal or a caveman-level race that has found a (natural or precursor-created) wormhole network to wander through, or just about any creature that finds itself hitch-hiking on other travellers' ships. Or hijacking them (c.f. "High Crusade" by Poul Anderson).
Profligacy then. Well, there's too many (fictional, but at least partially justifiable) "lone example" aliens out there. Last of their species (whether verdant beforehand, obviously they didn't attempt to maintain their population, or succeed against some form of adversity or another), or one of a very few seen away from their homeworld. Or perhaps they're a one-off in the first place (sentient planets, yadayadayada).
Conflict and war! [As I was writing before the above intervening ninjas, but I'll let this stand...] Development of tech in our experience seems to be accelerated by martial conditions, certainly. But does that only affect the rate of development? We haven't yet seen what a purely cooperative (hive mind?) society can do, probably because we've had too much war/corruption/individual resistance/whatever subverting any attempts to perfect the idea. And already we've covered the usage of non-native methods of travel (natural or otherwise) that a fully-cooperative alien race might use without having to go through the whole V2->Saturn V->Daedalus Project route themselves.
I think I've already ruled out Willingness to expand and Intention to do so, in the above. Look at the off-world Tau'ri in Stargate, quite a few of which are without more than their original (Earth-origin) societal values, or some analogue/parallel thereof.
Of course, insofar as the "Real World", we only have one example (us) to easily look at as (potential) interstellar travellers in their own right. We can't say for sure where we lie on the scale of various measures of "racial qualities" (nor how much our individuals deviate from the norm, approaching or overtaking other races' qualities). What if we're the Aliens[2], or the Minbari, or the Ewoks, or the Chigs, or the Luxans... Or the Tribbles! What do the true 'average race' think of us? Never mind those with the opposite balance of qualities from the mean...
[1] Insofar as work in which a weak and stupid creature can be useful doing as a slave.
[2] Ripliey/Nostromo/etc