Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012)

In this article we reply to the issues raised by the three commentaries on Ferguson's (2012) article. Watson argues that the four traits identified by Ferguson (2012) – health anxiety, alexithymia, empathy and Type D – do not lie outside the Five Factor Model (FFM). We present factor analytic d...

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Main Authors: Ferguson, Eamonn, Ward, Jane W., Skatova, Anya, Cassaday, Helen J., Bibby, Peter A., Lawrence, Claire
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2881/
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author Ferguson, Eamonn
Ward, Jane W.
Skatova, Anya
Cassaday, Helen J.
Bibby, Peter A.
Lawrence, Claire
author_facet Ferguson, Eamonn
Ward, Jane W.
Skatova, Anya
Cassaday, Helen J.
Bibby, Peter A.
Lawrence, Claire
author_sort Ferguson, Eamonn
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In this article we reply to the issues raised by the three commentaries on Ferguson's (2012) article. Watson argues that the four traits identified by Ferguson (2012) – health anxiety, alexithymia, empathy and Type D – do not lie outside the Five Factor Model (FFM). We present factor analytic data showing that health anxiety forms a separate factor from positive and negative affectivity, alexithymia forms a factor outside the FFM and while emotional empathy loads with agreeableness, cognitive empathy forms a separate factor outside the FFM. Across these analyses there was no evidence for a general factor of personality. We also show that health anxiety, empathic facets and alexithymia show incremental validity over FFM traits. However, the evidence that Type D lies outside the FFM is less clear. Matthews (2012) argues that traits have a more distributed influence on cognitions and that attention is not part of Ferguson's framework. We agree; but Ferguson's original statement concerned where traits have their maximal effect. Finally, Haslam et al. suggest that traits should be viewed from a dynamic interactionist perspective. This is in fact what Ferguson (2012) suggested and we go on to highlight that traits can also influence group processes.
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spelling nottingham-28812020-05-04T20:20:10Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2881/ Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012) Ferguson, Eamonn Ward, Jane W. Skatova, Anya Cassaday, Helen J. Bibby, Peter A. Lawrence, Claire In this article we reply to the issues raised by the three commentaries on Ferguson's (2012) article. Watson argues that the four traits identified by Ferguson (2012) – health anxiety, alexithymia, empathy and Type D – do not lie outside the Five Factor Model (FFM). We present factor analytic data showing that health anxiety forms a separate factor from positive and negative affectivity, alexithymia forms a factor outside the FFM and while emotional empathy loads with agreeableness, cognitive empathy forms a separate factor outside the FFM. Across these analyses there was no evidence for a general factor of personality. We also show that health anxiety, empathic facets and alexithymia show incremental validity over FFM traits. However, the evidence that Type D lies outside the FFM is less clear. Matthews (2012) argues that traits have a more distributed influence on cognitions and that attention is not part of Ferguson's framework. We agree; but Ferguson's original statement concerned where traits have their maximal effect. Finally, Haslam et al. suggest that traits should be viewed from a dynamic interactionist perspective. This is in fact what Ferguson (2012) suggested and we go on to highlight that traits can also influence group processes. Taylor & Francis 2013 Article PeerReviewed Ferguson, Eamonn, Ward, Jane W., Skatova, Anya, Cassaday, Helen J., Bibby, Peter A. and Lawrence, Claire (2013) Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012). Health Psychology Review, 7 (Supple). S85-S103. ISSN 1743-7199 Personality Health Factor analysis Determinism Empathy http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17437199.2012.701061#.Uz7ciahdXCc doi:10.1080/17437199.2012.701061 doi:10.1080/17437199.2012.701061
spellingShingle Personality
Health
Factor analysis
Determinism
Empathy
Ferguson, Eamonn
Ward, Jane W.
Skatova, Anya
Cassaday, Helen J.
Bibby, Peter A.
Lawrence, Claire
Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012)
title Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012)
title_full Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012)
title_fullStr Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012)
title_full_unstemmed Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012)
title_short Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012)
title_sort health specific traits beyond the five factor model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to watson (2012), matthews (2012) and haslam, jetten, reynolds, and reicher (2012)
topic Personality
Health
Factor analysis
Determinism
Empathy
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2881/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2881/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2881/