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).
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.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
authors.forename: Eamonn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.forename: Jane W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Anya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Skatova
authors.forename: Helen J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Cassaday
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Bibby
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lawrence
keywords: determinism; empathy; factor analysis; health; personality