All Outputs (146)

Effects of childhood trauma on cortisol levels in suicide attempters and ideators (2017)
Journal Article
O'Connor, D. B., Green, J. A., Ferguson, E., O’Carroll, R. E., & O'Connor, R. C. (in press). Effects of childhood trauma on cortisol levels in suicide attempters and ideators. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 88, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.11.004

Objectives: Suicide is a global health issue. Dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, as measured by cortisol levels, has been identified as one potential risk factor for suicide. Recent evidence has indicated that blunted co... Read More about Effects of childhood trauma on cortisol levels in suicide attempters and ideators.

Risk preferences in surrogate decision making (2017)
Journal Article
Batteux, E., Ferguson, E., & Tunney, R. J. (in press). Risk preferences in surrogate decision making. Experimental Psychology, 64(4), https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000371

There is growing evidence that decisions made on behalf of other people differ from the decisions we make for ourselves because we are less affected by the subjective experience of their outcome. As a result, the decisions we make for other people ca... Read More about Risk preferences in surrogate decision making.

Saving energy in the workplace: why, and for whom? (2017)
Journal Article
Leygue, C., Ferguson, E., & Spence, A. (2017). Saving energy in the workplace: why, and for whom?. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 53, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.06.006

Saving energy at work might be considered altruistic, because often no personal benefits accrue. However, we consider the possibility that it can be a form of impure-altruism in that the individual experiences some rewards. We develop a scale to meas... Read More about Saving energy in the workplace: why, and for whom?.

Politeness and compassion differentially predict adherence to fairness norms and interventions to norm violations in economic games (2017)
Journal Article
Zhao, K., Ferguson, E., & Smillie, L. D. (in press). Politeness and compassion differentially predict adherence to fairness norms and interventions to norm violations in economic games. Scientific Reports, 7, Article 3415. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02952-1

Adherence to norms and interventions to norm violations are two important forms of social behaviour modelled in economic games. While both appear to serve a prosocial function, they may represent separate mechanisms corresponding with distinct emotio... Read More about Politeness and compassion differentially predict adherence to fairness norms and interventions to norm violations in economic games.

Does gratitude enhance prosociality: a meta-analytic review (2017)
Journal Article
Ma, L., Tunney, R. J., & Ferguson, E. (2017). Does gratitude enhance prosociality: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 143(6), 601-635. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000103

Theoretical models suggest that gratitude is linked to increased prosociality. To date, however, there is a lack of a comprehensive quantitative synthesis of results to support this claim. In this review we aimed to 1) examine the overall strength of... Read More about Does gratitude enhance prosociality: a meta-analytic review.

Safety culture: the Nottingham Veterinary Safety Culture Survey (NVSCS) (2017)
Journal Article
Oxtoby, C., Mossop, L., White, K., & Ferguson, E. (2017). Safety culture: the Nottingham Veterinary Safety Culture Survey (NVSCS). Veterinary Record, 180(19), https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.104215

Safety culture is a vital concept in human healthcare because of its influence on staff behaviours in relation to patient safety. Understanding safety culture is essential to ensure the acceptance and sustainability of changes, such as the introducti... Read More about Safety culture: the Nottingham Veterinary Safety Culture Survey (NVSCS).

How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change (2017)
Journal Article
Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., Delaney, L., & Ferguson, E. (in press). How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change. European Journal of Personality, 31(3), https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2099

Personality is important for a range of life outcomes. However, despite evidence that personality changes across time, there is a concerning tendency for researchers outside of personality psychology to treat measures of personality as if they are no... Read More about How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change.

Guilty repair sustains cooperation, angry retaliation destroys it (2017)
Journal Article
Skatova, A., Ferguson, E., Leygue, C., & Spence, A. (2017). Guilty repair sustains cooperation, angry retaliation destroys it. Scientific Reports, 7, doi:10.1038/srep46709

Sustained cooperative social interactions are key to successful outcomes in many real-world contexts (e.g., climate change and energy conservation). We explore the self-regulatory roles of anger and guilt, as well as prosocial or selfish social prefe... Read More about Guilty repair sustains cooperation, angry retaliation destroys it.

A brief psychological intervention to reduce repetition of self-harm in patients admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt: a randomised controlled trial (2017)
Journal Article
O’Connor, R. C., Ferguson, E., Scott, F., Smyth, R., McDaid, D., Park, A., …Armitage, C. J. (2017). A brief psychological intervention to reduce repetition of self-harm in patients admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Psychiatry, 4(6), 451-460. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366%2817%2930129-3

© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license Background: We investigated whether a volitional helpsheet (VHS), a brief psychological intervention, could reduce repeat self-harm in the 6 month... Read More about A brief psychological intervention to reduce repetition of self-harm in patients admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt: a randomised controlled trial.

Future directions in personality, occupational and medical selection: myths, misunderstandings, measurement, and suggestions (2017)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., & Lievens, F. (2017). Future directions in personality, occupational and medical selection: myths, misunderstandings, measurement, and suggestions. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 22(2), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-016-9751-0

This paper has two objectives: (1) presenting recent advances in the personality field concerning the conceptualization of personality arising from the dynamic interactions of behaviour, biology, context, and states, and (2) discussing the implicatio... Read More about Future directions in personality, occupational and medical selection: myths, misunderstandings, measurement, and suggestions.

When fair is not equal: compassion and politeness predict allocations of wealth under different norms of equity and need (2017)
Journal Article
Zhao, K., Ferguson, E., & Smillie, L. D. (in press). When fair is not equal: compassion and politeness predict allocations of wealth under different norms of equity and need. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(8), https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616683018

Growing evidence has highlighted the importance of social norms in promoting prosocial behaviors in economic games. Specifically, individual differences in norm adherence—captured by the politeness aspect of Big Five agreeableness—has been found to p... Read More about When fair is not equal: compassion and politeness predict allocations of wealth under different norms of equity and need.

Lay causes of binge drinking in the United Kingdom and Australia: a causal network diagram approach (2017)
Journal Article
Keatley, D. A., Ferguson, E., Lonsdale, A., & Hagger, M. S. (2017). Lay causes of binge drinking in the United Kingdom and Australia: a causal network diagram approach. Health Education Research, 32(1), 33-47. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyw056

Binge drinking is associated with deleterious health, social and economic outcomes. This study explored the lay understanding of the causes of binge drinking in members of the general public in the United Kingdom and Australia. Participants in the Un... Read More about Lay causes of binge drinking in the United Kingdom and Australia: a causal network diagram approach.

Public health messages about antibiotic treatment for respiratory tract infection may increase perceived symptom severity reporting (2016)
Journal Article
Lawrence, C., & Eamonn, F. (2019). Public health messages about antibiotic treatment for respiratory tract infection may increase perceived symptom severity reporting. Journal of Health Psychology, 24(5), 623-627. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105316683242

Public health campaigns to reduce expectations for antibiotic treatment for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) have shown little or no effect on antibiotic prescribing and consumption. We examined whether such messages can increase RTI symptom repor... Read More about Public health messages about antibiotic treatment for respiratory tract infection may increase perceived symptom severity reporting.

Discordant inflammation and pain in early and established rheumatoid arthritis: Latent Class Analysis of Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network and British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register data (2016)
Journal Article
McWilliams, D. F., Ferguson, E., Young, A., Kiely, P. D., & Walsh, D. A. (2016). Discordant inflammation and pain in early and established rheumatoid arthritis: Latent Class Analysis of Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network and British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register data. Arthritis Research and Therapy, 18(1), Article 295. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-016-1186-8

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity is often measured using the 28 joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28). We aimed to identify and independently verify subgroups of people with RA that may be discordant with respect to self-reported... Read More about Discordant inflammation and pain in early and established rheumatoid arthritis: Latent Class Analysis of Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network and British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register data.

Anticipated regret and organ donor registration: a randomised controlled trial (2016)
Journal Article
O'Carroll, R. E., Shepherd, L., Hayes, P. C., & Ferguson, E. (2016). Anticipated regret and organ donor registration: a randomised controlled trial. Health Psychology, 35(11), 1169-1177. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000363

Objective: To test whether simply asking people to rate the extent to which they anticipate feeling regret for not registering as an organ donor after death increases subsequent verified organ donor registration. Methods: 14,509 members of the genera... Read More about Anticipated regret and organ donor registration: a randomised controlled trial.

Cortisol reactivity and suicidal behavior: investigating the role of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to stress in suicide attempters and ideators (2016)
Journal Article
O’Connor, D. B., Green, J. A., Ferguson, E., O’Carroll, R. E., & O’Connor, R. C. (2017). Cortisol reactivity and suicidal behavior: investigating the role of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to stress in suicide attempters and ideators. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 75, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.10.019

Every 40 seconds a person dies by suicide somewhere in the world. The causes of suicidal behavior are not fully understood. Dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, as measured by cortisol levels, is one potential risk factor.... Read More about Cortisol reactivity and suicidal behavior: investigating the role of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to stress in suicide attempters and ideators.

Reappraisal buffers the association between stress and negative mood measured over 14 days: implications for understanding psychological resilience (2016)
Journal Article
Johnson, J., O'Connnor, D. B., Jones, C., Jackson, C., Hughes, G. J., & Ferguson, E. (2016). Reappraisal buffers the association between stress and negative mood measured over 14 days: implications for understanding psychological resilience. European Journal of Personality, 30(6), 608-617. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2080

Reappraisal is thought to be an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, and research suggests that individuals who habitually reappraise report more positive patterns of affect overall. However, some experimental studies indicate that a greater tendenc... Read More about Reappraisal buffers the association between stress and negative mood measured over 14 days: implications for understanding psychological resilience.

Histopathological subgroups in knee osteoarthritis (2016)
Journal Article
Wyatt, L., Morerton, B., Mapp, P. I., Wilson, D., Hill, R., Ferguson, E., …Walsh, D. A. (in press). Histopathological subgroups in knee osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 25(1), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2016.09.021

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a heterogeneous, multi-tissue disease. We hypothesised that different histopathological features characterise different stages during knee OA progression, and that discrete subgroups can be defined based on validated... Read More about Histopathological subgroups in knee osteoarthritis.

Prosocial personality traits differentially predict egalitarianism, generosity, and reciprocity in economic games (2016)
Journal Article
Zhao, K., Ferguson, E., & Smillie, L. D. (2016). Prosocial personality traits differentially predict egalitarianism, generosity, and reciprocity in economic games. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 1137. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01137

Recent research has highlighted the role of prosocial personality traits—agreeableness and honesty-humility—in egalitarian distributions of wealth in the dictator game. Expanding on these findings, we ran two studies to examine individual differences... Read More about Prosocial personality traits differentially predict egalitarianism, generosity, and reciprocity in economic games.

Associations between sheep farmer attitudes, beliefs, emotions and personality, and their barriers to uptake of best practice: the example of footrot (2016)
Journal Article
O’Kane, H., Ferguson, E., Kaler, J., & Green, L. (2017). Associations between sheep farmer attitudes, beliefs, emotions and personality, and their barriers to uptake of best practice: the example of footrot. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 139, 123-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2016.05.009

There is interest in understanding how farmers’ behaviour influences their management of livestock. We extend the theory of planned behaviour with farmers attitudes, beliefs, emotions and personality to investigate how these are associated with manag... Read More about Associations between sheep farmer attitudes, beliefs, emotions and personality, and their barriers to uptake of best practice: the example of footrot.