Hello, I’m Wang Fang. The Big Five is today's most widely used personality model because its clear structure captures broad shared traits and applies widely. But it is not flawless; today we find fault with it.

First,the Big Five is not a complete theory of personality. It describes common traits without reaching deeper human nature, so it cannot deeply explain behavior. Part 3, Personality Dynamics: Where Am I Going?, will introduce psychoanalytic, humanistic, and other theories that explain motives and functions. The Big Five excels at description; attempted explanation can become circular.

A primary-school teacher asks why a child constantly confronts classmates. A trait psychologist might say low agreeableness. How do we know? Because the child constantly confronts classmates.

Likewise, because it emphasizes description,the Big Five captures general behavioral regularities, not their dynamics or development.Traits reflect patterns of thought, feeling, and action but cannot say why a specific trait develops or how the process unfolds.

Critics also call it too broad—both its strength and weakness. Breadth makes it comprehensive and easy, but can seem to say everything and nothing. McAdams (1995) called it ‘the psychology of the stranger’ becauseit works well for observing a stranger.When is that useful? A blind date: it quickly sketches behavioral style but misses intimate, deeper individuality. More explanatory theories from Part 3 are then needed.

Do five dimensions truly capture shared personality? Some researchers search for overlooked traits beyond them, along two paths.

The firstinvestigates culture-specific traits.Some traits evolved across humanity and are shared among cultures, which the Big Five captures. Others are shaped by particular societies. The lexical hypothesis suggests languages reveal these differences: the more important a characteristic, the richer its vocabulary. Chinese has enormous numbers of which words? Many answer food—basic literacy in our foodie empire!

Beyond food, another category may be even larger: words describingrelationships.These words are abundant.