The Gift of Introversion

analysis. Although this does not mean that these five factors do not exist, the underlying
causes behind them are unknown.
Jack Block's final published work before his death in January 2010 drew together his
lifetime perspective on the five-factor model.
He summarized his critique of the model in terms of:
the atheoretical nature of the five-factors.
their "cloudy" measurement.
the model's inappropriateness for studying early childhood.
the use of factor analysis as the exclusive paradigm for conceptualizing
personality.
the continuing non-consensual understandings of the five-factors.
the existence of unrecognized but successful efforts to specify aspects of
character not subsumed by the five-factors.
He went on to suggest that repeatedly observed higher order factors hierarchically
above the proclaimed Big Five personality traits may promise deeper biological
understanding of the origins and implications of these superfactors.
Evidence for Six Factors, Rather Than Five
It has been noted that even though early lexical studies in the English language
indicated five large groups of personality traits, more recent, and more comprehensive,
cross-language studies have provided evidence for six large groups rather than
five. These six groups forms the basis of the HEXACO model of personality structure.
Based on these findings it has been suggested that the Big Five system should be
replaced by HEXACO, or revised to better align with lexical evidence.
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