Eamonn Ferguson BSc., PhD., CPsychol., AFBPsS., FRSH

Contact details

School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG2 7RD.

email: eamonn.ferguson@nottingham.ac.uk Tel: + 44 (0) 115 951 5327 Fax: +44 (0) 115 951 5324

Background:

I am a professor of health psychology and a chartered health psychologist and a chartered occupational psychologist.

Research Focus:

My research focuses on developing the theoretical understanding of the personality and with respect to applied issues in health and occupational psychology. Theoretically, I am interested in the relationship between personality and behavioural economics, the role of emotional processing with respect to decision making and the measurement of traits. From an applied perspective I am interested in understanding behaviour associated with blood and organ donation, health communications, risky health behaviours, symptom perception and the selection and training of medical students and qualified doctors.

A brief description of each of these research areas is given below.

Personality and Economics

This area of research explores how individual variability in economic games can be understood with respect to personality traits. Recent work has examined the psychometric and genetic basis of preferences toward altruism in a mate. Along with Professor Philip Corr I am editing a special issue Personality and Individual Differences on the topic of Personality and Economics.

Some example publications –

Skatova, A., & Ferguson, E. (In press). What Makes People Cooperate? Personality Predicts Contribution in the Public Goods Games. Personality and Individual Differences

Bibby. PA., & Ferguson, E. (In press). Alexithymia, BIG 5, Sensation Seeking and Loss Aversion. Personality and Individual Differences

Philips, T., Ferguson, E., Reeder, T & Barnard, C. (2008) Mate preference towards altruistic traits suggests a link between human altruism and sexual selection. British Journal of Psychology, 99, 555-572

Philips, T., Ferguson, E., & Rijsdijk., F. (2010). A link between altruism and sexual selection: genetic influence on altruistic behaviour and mate preference towards it. British Journal of Psychology (DOI:10.1348/000712610X493494)

Emotions and Decision Making

Within this area of research I am particularly interested in the role of alexithymia and health anxiety with respect to risky decision making.

Some example publications –

Ferguson E., Moghaddam NG & Bibby. (2007) Memory bias in health anxiety is related to the emotional valence of health related words. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 62, 263-274.

Ferguson, E., Bibby PA., Rosamond, S., O’Grady, C., Parcell, A., Amos, C., McCutcheon, C., & O’Carroll, R. (2009). Alexithymia, Cumulative Cognitive Feedback and Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task: Differential Response Patterns for Alexithymics. Journal of Personality, 77, 883-902

Bibby, PA., & Ferguson, E. (In press). Alexithymia, BIG 5, Sensation Seeking and Loss Aversion. Personality and Individual Differences

Measurement and Structure of Traits

Within this area my main interest is whether traits applied on health settings are dimensional or taxonic.

Some example publications –

Ferguson, E. (2008) A taxometric analysis of health anxiety. Psychological Medicine, 39, 277-285.

Ferguson^, E., Williams^. L., O’Connor, R.., Howard^, S., Hughes^, BM., Johnston DW., Allan^, JA., O’Connor, DB., Lewis, CA., Grealy, MA., & O’Carroll, RE. (2009). A Taxometric Analysis of Type-D Personality. Psychosomatic Medicine, 71, 981-986

Heym, N., Ferguson, E., Lawrence, C. (2008).An evaluation of the relationship between Gray's revised RST and Eysenck's PEN: Distinguishing BIS and FFFS in Carver and White's BIS/BAS scales. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 709–715

Ferguson^. E., Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic^, T., Pickering^, A., & Weiss, A. (in press). Five Into One Doesn’t Go: A Critique of the General Factor of Personality. Handbook of Individual Differences (T Chamorro-Premuzic, A Furnham and S von Stumm, Eds). London, Wiley-Blackwell.

Blood and Organ Donation (altruism or egoism) and transfusion medicine (medical decision making)

This research agenda aims to answer such questions as: Why do only 6% of the eligible population donate blood? This works draws on theories in human altruism-egoism, (2) emotions, (3) intentionality and (4) message framing. Blood and organ donation are archetypal altruistic behaviour and this domain allows us to explore models of human altruism-egoism.

Some example publications –

Ferguson, E & Bibby PA. (2002). Predicting future blood donor returns: past behavior, intentions and observer effects. Health Psychology, 21, 513-518.

Ferguson, E. (2004) Conscientiousness, emotional stability, perceived control and the frequency, recency, rate and years of blood donor behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology, 13, 293-314

Ferguson, E., & Chandler, S. (2005). A stage model of blood donor behaviour: Assessing voluntary behaviour. Journal of Health Psychology, 10, 359-372

Ferguson, E., France, CR, Abraham, C., Ditto, B., & Sheeran. P. (2007) Improving Blood Donor Recruitment and Retention: Integrating Social and Behavioral Science Agendas. Transfusion, 47, 1999-2010.

Ferguson, E., Farrell, K & Lawrence, C. (2008). Blood Donation is an act of Benevolence Rather Than Altruism. Health Psychology, 27, 327-336

Medical selection and education

This work explores the relative importance of both traditional (e.g., A levels) and non-traditional factors (e.g., personality, personal statements) as predictors of performance across undergraduate and post-graduate medical education. Some of this work has informed the development post-graduate medical selection centres for general practice.

Some example publications –

Ferguson, E., James, D., & Madelely, L. (2002). Factors associated with success in medical school: systematic review of the literature. British Medical Journal, 324, 952-957.

Ferguson, E., James, D., O'Hehir. F & Sanders, A. (2003). A pilot study of the roles of personality, references and personal statements in relation to performance over the 5 years of a medical degree. British Medical Journal, 326, 429-431.

Patterson, F., Ferguson, E., Lane, P., & Norfolk, T. (2005) A new selection system to recruit GPRS. British Medical Journal, 330, 711-714

Powis, D., James, D., & Ferguson, E. (2007) Demographic and socio-economic associations with UCAS tariff scores in applicants to medical school. Medical Education, 41, 242-249

Silvester, J., Patterson, F., Koczwara A., & Ferguson, E. (2007) ‘Trust me…’: Psychological and behavioral predictors of perceived physician empathy. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 519-527.

Health Behaviours

This area of work focuses on assessing multiple predictors of health behaviours.

Some example publications –

Moghaddam NG., & Ferguson, E. (2007) Smoking, mood regulation and personality: An event contingent-sampling exploration of potential models and moderation. Journal of Personality, 75, 451478

Jones, F., O’Connor, DB., Conner M., McMillan, B., & Ferguson, E. (2007). Impact of Daily Mood, Work Hours, and Iso-Strain Variables on Self-reported Health Behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1731-1740

O’Connor, DB., Jones, F., Conner, M., McMillan, B., & Ferguson, E. (2008). Effects of Daily Hassles and Eating Style on Eating Behavior. Health Psychology, 27, S20-S31.

O’Connor, DB., Jones, F., Conner, M., McMillan, B., & Ferguson, E. (2009). Effects of Conscientiousness and Daily Hassles on Health Behaviors. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 37, 184-196

Lotfipour, S., Ferguson, E., Leonard, G., Perron, M., Pike, B., Richer, L., Séguin, JR., Toro, R., Veillette, S., Pausova, Z., & Paus, T. (2009) Orbitofrontal Cortex and Drug Use during Adolescence: Role of Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Smoking and BDNF Genotype. Archives of General Psychiatry ,66, 1244- 1252.

Health Communication

This work concerns how best to present health related information, to the general public and patient groups, to try and maximize their understanding of the information to aid better decision making.

Some example publications –

Farrell, K., Ferguson, E., James, V., & Lowe, K. (2001). Confidence in the safety of blood for transfusion: The effect of message framing. Transfusion, 41, 1335-1340.

O’Connor DB., Ferguson, E., & O’Connor RC. (2005) Intentions to use hormonal male contraception: The role of message framing, attitudes and stress appraisals. British Journal of Psychology, 96, 351-369

Ferguson, E., & Gallagher, L. (2007). Message Framing with Respect to Decisions About Vaccination: The Roles of Frame Valence, Frame Method and Perceived Risk. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 667-680

Ferguson E, Prowse C, Townsend E, Spence A, van Hilten J, & Lowe K. (2008). Acceptability of Blood Substitutes. Journal of Internal Medicine, 263, 244-255

Ferguson. E., Spence^, A., Townsend, E., Prowse, C., Palmer, J., Fleming, P., & Van Hilten, JA. (2009) What Information is Trust by Whom: A Multi-Level Analysis of the Stability of the Information Source-Trust Association for Blood Transfusion. Transfusion, 49, 1637-1648

Symptom Perception

This work concerns the role of traits, association and physiology with respect to symptom perception.

Some example publications –

Ferguson, E., Cassaday, HJ., & Bibby, P. (2004). Odors and sounds as triggers for medically unexplained symptoms: A fixed occasion diary study of in Gulf War veterans. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 27, 205-214

Ferguson, E., Daniels, K., & Jones, D. (2006). Negatively oriented personality and negative job-characteristics as predictors of future psychological and physical symptoms: A meta-analytic structural modelling approach. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60, 45-52.

Ferguson, E. Health Anxiety Moderates the Day-Time Cortisol Slope. (2008) Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 64, 487-494

Full Publications

Teaching

I am responsible for teaching personality and statistics to our second year undergraduate students and a course on altruism and helping to our final year undergraduates.

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