Unsubstantiated beliefs and values flaw the Five-Factor Model of Personality

The Five-Factor Model of Personality was empirically derived and is now ubiquitous in research and applied personality psychology. However it is presented in current textbooks as including an un-evidenced component: the judgement that, while the five traits are socially desirable qualities (except socially undesirable Neuroticism), low scorers are characterised by their deficiency in essential social skills, displaying unattractive undesirable personalities. This judgement is verbally reinforced by the value-laden designations of the five traits (excepting Extraversion). Thus the model ignores evidence for cognate but contrasting personality factors that are also desirable in individuals and for society. It is proposed that traits are better understood as coming in pairs, thus resembling allelic variant expressions of genes. Extraversion and Introversion would then each reference a quality with both positive and negative potential. The traits Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness could become respectively Imaginative/Practical, Empathic/Rational and Purposeful/Relaxed. It is argued that the proposed revision would yield a model more consistent with experienced, and hopefully ontological, reality than the current formulation.