Quote Originally Posted by MissDucki View Post
If it makes you feel any better, serious data is hard to come by for any personality theory. I took a class in my uni and I was very surprised about how many different ones out there and how vague they can be. It is very hard to get data on anything subjective and create external measurement. My professor based each theory on a scales if they passed certain attributes of a solid theory. I wish this was taken more seriously and there was more serious funding behind personality theory psychology in general but, it seems until a legitimate analysis and ways of making subjective traits that can be measured in legitimate and external ways. The Big 5 is the main use of personality theory scale that is used by psychologists at the moment. We have a long ways to go.
But the Big 5 isn’t really a theory, is it? It doesn’t seem to have much explaining power at the moment. As I understand, it defines some dichotomies and tries to place people on a scale of them. Which to me sounds about as useful as the Enneagram once you ignore the mysticism; that is, not very much, unless more data is collected and correlated.