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)

Eamonn Ferguson, Jane W Ward, Anya Skatova, Helen J Cassaday, Peter A Bibby, Claire Lawrence, Eamonn Ferguson, Jane W Ward, Anya Skatova, Helen J Cassaday, Peter A Bibby, Claire Lawrence

Abstract

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.

Keywords: determinism; empathy; factor analysis; health; personality.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
CFA model for the Big 5 and alexithymia.

References

    1. Almlund M., Duckworth A., Heckman J.J., Kautz T. Personality psychology and economics. In: Hanushek E.A., editor; Machin S., Woessman L., editors. Handbook of the Economics of Education. Vol. 4. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2011. pp. 1–182.
    1. Batson C.D. These things called empathy: Eight related but distinct phenomena. In: Decety J., Ickes W., editors. Social neuroscience of empathy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2009. pp. 3–15.
    1. Bibby P.A., Ferguson E. Alexithymia, Big 5, sensation seeking and loss aversion. Personality and Individual Differences. 2011;51:263–266.
    1. Blair R.J.P. Responding to the emotions of others: Dissociating form of empathy through the study of typical and psychiatric populations. Consciousness and Cognition. 2005;14:698–718.
    1. Borghans L., Duckworth A.L., Heckman J.J., ter Weel B. The economics and psychology of personality traits. Journal of Human Resources. 2008;XLIII:972–1059.
    1. Chapman B.P., Duberstien P.R., Lyness J.M. The distressed personality type: Replicability and general health associations. European Journal of Personality. 2007;21:911–929.
    1. Clark M.H., Schroth C.A. Examining relationships between academic motivation and personality among college students. Learning and Individual Differences. 2010;20:19–24.
    1. Coyne J.C., Jaarsma T., Luttik M.L., van Sonderen E., van Veldhuisen D.J., Sanderman R. Lack of prognostic value of type D personality for mortality in a large sample of heart failure patients. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2011;73:557–562.
    1. Cunha F., Heckman J.J. The technology of skill formation. American Economic Review. 2007;97:31–47.
    1. Cunha F., Heckman J.J., Schennach S. Estimating the technology of cognitive and noncognitive skill formation. Econometrica. 2010;78:883–931.
    1. Davis M.H. Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1983;44:113–126.
    1. Davis M.H., Mitchell K.W., Hall J.A., Lothert J., Snapp T., Meyer M. Empathy, expectations and situational preferences: Personality influences on the decision to participate in volunteer helping behavior. Journal of Personality. 1999;67:469–503.
    1. De Fruyt P., Denollet J. Type D personality: A five-factor model perspective. Psychology and Health. 2002;17:671–683.
    1. del Barrio V., Aluja A., Garcia L.F. Relationship between empathy and the big five personality traits in a sample of Spanish adolescents. Social Behavior and Personality. 2004;32:677–682.
    1. Dickens W.T., Flynn J.R. Heritability estimates versus large environmental effects: The IQ paradox resolved. Psychological Bulletin. 2001;108:346–369.
    1. Digman J.M. Higher-order factors of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1997;73:1246–1256.
    1. Dillon W.R., Kumar A., Mulani N. Offending estimates in covariance structure analysis: Comments on the causes and solutions to Heywood cases. Psychological Bulletin. 1987;101:126–135.
    1. Dingemanse N.J., Kazem A.J.N., Reale D., Wright J. Behavioral reaction norms: Animal personality meets individual plasticity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 2010;25:81–89.
    1. Fergus T.A., Valentiner D.P. Reexamining the domains of hypochondriasis: Comparing the illness attitudes scale to other approaches. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 2009;23:760–766.
    1. Fergus T.A., Valentiner D.P. The short health anxiety inventory and multidimensional inventory of hypochondriacal traits: A comparison of two self-report measures of health anxiety. Cognitive Research and Therapy. 2011;35:566–574.
    1. Ferguson E. Hypochondriacal concerns and the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality. 2000;68:705–724.
    1. Ferguson E. A taxometric analysis of health anxiety. Psychological Medicine. 2009a;39:277–285.
    1. Ferguson E. Trait empathy and altruistic behavior: The moderating effects of behavioral cost and choice. 2009b. International Society for Individual Differences, Conference, Chicago (18–22 July)
    1. Ferguson E. Personality is of central concern to understand health: Towards a theoretical model for health psychology. Health Psychology Review. 2012. doi: 10.1080/17437199.2010.547985.
    1. Ferguson E., Bibby P.A., Rosamond S., O'Grady C., Parcell A., Amos C., O'Carroll R.C. Alexithymia, cumulative cognitive feedback and performance on the Iowa gambling task: Differential response patterns for alexithymics. Journal of Personality. 2009;77:883–902.
    1. Ferguson E., Cassaday H.J., Erskind J., Delahaye G. Individual differences in the temporal variability in medically unexplained symptom reporting. British Journal of Health Psychology. 2004;9:219–240.
    1. Ferguson E., Cassaday H.J., Ward J., Weyman A. Triggers for non-specific symptoms in the workplace: Individual differences, stress and environmental (odour and sound) factors. HSE books; 2006. Retrieved from .
    1. Ferguson E., Cox T. Exploratory factor analysis: A users guide. International Journal of Selection and Assessment. 1993;1:84–94.
    1. Ferguson E., Heckman J.J., Corr P. Personality and economics: Overview and proposed framework. Personality and Individual Differences. 2011;51:201–209.
    1. Ferguson E., Moghaddam N.G., Bibby P.A. Memory bias in health anxiety is related to the emotional valence of health related words. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2007;62:263–274.
    1. Ferguson E., Chamorro-Premuzic T., Pickering A., Weiss A. Five into one doesn't go: A critique of the general factor of personality. In: Chamorro-Premuzic T., editor; Furnham A., von Stumm S., editors. Handbook of Individual Differences. London: Wiley-Blackwell; 2011. pp. 162–186.
    1. Ferguson E., Williams L., O'Connor R., Howard S., Hughes B.M., Johnston D.W., O'Carroll R.E. A taxometric analysis of Type-D personality. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2009;71:981–986.
    1. Goldberg L.R. The development of the markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment. 1992;4:26–42.
    1. Goldberg L.R. The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist. 1993;48:26–34.
    1. Grande G., Glaesmer H., Roth M. The construct validity of social inhibition and the Type-D taxonomy. Journal of Health Psychology. 2010;15:1103–1112.
    1. Grande G., Romppel M., Vesper J.M., Schubmann K., Glaesmer H., Herrmann-Lingen C. Type D personality and all-cause mortality in cardiac patients – data from a German Cohort Study. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2011;73:548–556.
    1. Graziano W.G., Habashi M.M., Sheese B.E., Tobin R.M. Agreeableness, empathy and helping: A person X situation perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2007;93:583–599.
    1. Haslam S.A., Jetten J., Reynolds K.J., Reicher S.D. The dangers of isolating the individual: The need for a dynamic and socially structured model of personality – Commentary of Ferguson (2012) Health Psychology Review. 2012. doi: 10.1080/17437199.2011.606097.
    1. Heckman J.J. The economics, technology and neuroscience of human capability formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2007;104:13250–13255.
    1. Heckman J.J., Stixrud J., Urzua S. The effects of cognitive and noncognitive abilities on labor market outcomes and social behavior. Journal of Labor Economics. 2006;24:411–482.
    1. Hu L., Bentler P.M. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes on covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling. 1999;6:1–55.
    1. Isaac M., Janca A., Burke K.C., Silva J.A.C.E., Acuda S.W., Altamura A.C., Tacchini G. Medically unexplained somatic symptoms in different cultures – a preliminary-report from phase-i of the World Health Organization international study of somatoform disorders. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 1995;64:88–93.
    1. Jokela M. Personality predicts migration within and between US states. Journal of Research in Personality. 2009;43:79–83.
    1. Jones S., Cauffman E., Miller J.D., Mulvey E. Investigating different factor structures of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version: Confirmatory factor analytic findings. Psychological Assessment. 2006;18:33–48.
    1. Kumari V., Ffytche D.H., Williams S.C.R., Gray J.A. Personality predicts brain responses to cognitive demand. Journal of Neuroscience. 2004;24:10636–10641.
    1. Leohlin J.C. Environment and the behaviour genetics of personality: Let me count the way. Personality and Individual Differences. 2010;49:302–395.
    1. Martens E.J., Mols F., Burg M.M., Denollet J. Type D personality predicts clinical events after myocardial infarction above and beyond disease severity and depression. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2010;71:778–783.
    1. Matthews G. Cognitive science perspectives on personality and emotion. New York, NY: Elsevier; 1997.
    1. Matthews G. Integrating biological and cognitive processes on personality and health; Commentary on Ferguson (2012) Health Psychology Review. 2012. doi: 10.1080/17437199.2011.601945.
    1. Matthews G., Gilliland K. The personality theories of HJ Eysenck and JA Gray: A comparative review. Personality and Individual Differences. 1999;26:583–626.
    1. McCrae R.R., Costa P.T. The five-factor theory of personality. In: Pervin L.A., John O.P., editors. Handbook of personality: Theory and research. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Guilford Press; 1999. pp. 139–153.
    1. Mols F., Denollet J. Type D personality among noncardiovascular patient populations: A systematic review. General Hospital Psychiatry. 2010;32:66–72.
    1. Musek J. A general factor of personality: Evidence for the Big One in the five factor model. Journal of Research in Personality. 2007;41:1213–1233.
    1. Muthén, L.K., Muthén B.O. Mplus user's guide. 6th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Author; 1998.
    1. Nettle D. The evolution of personality variation in humans and other animals. American Psychologist. 2006;61:622–631.
    1. Pedersen S.S., Denollet J. Validity of the Type D personality construct in Danish post-MI patients and health controls. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2004;57:265–272.
    1. Pedersen S.S., Denollet J. Type D and the five factor personality model of cardiac prognosis: Is Type D nothing more than new wine in old bottles. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2008;70:A26.
    1. Perkins A.M., Corr P.J. Reactions to threat and personality: Psychometric differentiation of intensity and direction dimensions of human defensive behaviour. Behavioural Brain Research. 2006;169:21–28.
    1. Rentfrow P.J. Statewide differences in personality: Toward a Psychological Geography of the United States. American Psychologist. 2010;65:548–558.
    1. Robbins J.M., Kirmayer L.J. Attributions of common somatic symptoms. Psychological Medicine. 1991;21:1029–1045.
    1. Roberts B.W. Back to the future: Personality and assessment and personality development. Journal of Research in Personality. 2009;43:137–145.
    1. Roberts B.W., Jackson J.J. Sociogenomic personality psychology. Journal of Personality. 2008;76:1523–1544.
    1. Roberts B.W., Walton K.E., Viechtbauer W. Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin. 2006;132:1–25.
    1. Rushton J.P., Irwing P. The general factor of personality (GFP) from two metaanalyses of the Big Five: Digman (1997) and Mount, Barrick, Scullen, and Rounds (2005) Personality and Individual Differences. 2008;45:679–683.
    1. Schaller M., Murray D.R. Pathogens, personality and culture: Disease prevalence predicts worldwide variability in sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2008;95:212–221.
    1. Shaw T.H., Matthews G., Warm J.S., Finomore V.S., Silverman L., Costa P.T. Individual differences in vigilance: Personality, ability and states of stress. Journal of Research in Personality. 2010;44:297–308.
    1. Singer T., Lamm C. The social neuroscience of empathy. Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 2009;1156:81–96.
    1. Skallova A., Novotna M., Kolbekova P., Gasova Z., Vesely V., Flegr J. Decreased levels of novelty seeking in blood donors infected with toxoplasma. Neuroendocrinology. 2005;26:480–486.
    1. Skatova A.A. Underpinnings of higher level motivational orientations. 2011. (PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham).
    1. Tully P.J., Baker R.A., Eld H.R.W., Turnball D.A. Depression, anxiety disorders and Type D personality as risk factors for delirium after cardiac surgery. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2010;44:1005–1011.
    1. Tully P.J., Pedersen S.S., Winefield H.R., Baker R.A., Turnbull D.A., Denollet J. Cardiac morbidity risk and depression and anxiety: A disorder, symptom and trait analysis among cardiac surgery patients. Psychology, Health and Medicine. 2011;16:333–345.
    1. Watson D. Toward a comprehensive hierarchical structure. Health Psychology Review. 2012. doi: 10.1080/17437199.2011.601901.
    1. Watson D., Clarke L.A., Tellegen A. Development and validation of a brief measure of positive and negative affectivity – the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1988;54:1063–1070.
    1. Wirth R.J., Edwards M.C. Item factor analysis: Current approaches and future directions. Psychological Methods. 2007;12:58–79.
    1. Yu D.S.F., Thompson D.R., Yu C.M., Pedersen S.S., Denollet J. Validating the Type D personality construct in Chinese patients with coronary heart disease. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2010;69:111–118.

Source: PubMed

赞助者和合作者

医疗条件

药物干预

3
订阅