Health Psychology, 2nd Edition

In relation to the development of chronic diseases, personality traits may play an
important role in the maintenance of behaviours that are health-promoting or health-
damaging when engaged in over time (e.g. smoking and unhealthy eating). Similarly,
accidents and unintentional injuries are usually a consequence of repeated exposure
to risky situations rather than a single chance event. Personality traits may also
influence health through a variety of other mechanisms such as increasing perceptions
of stress. A key theme in this chapter is the different mechanisms by which personality
traits affect health outcomes. In considering each personality trait and its impact on
health we discuss potential explanations and then in a final section consider these
explanations collectively. Table 6.1 (below) provides a summary of key explanations
of the relationships between personality traits and health.

OPTIMISM

Optimism refers to the expectation that in the future good things will happen to you
and bad things will not. While we all may be optimistic in some areas of our lives and

PERSONALITY AND HEALTH 117

Type C personality

This chapter reviews work on the ‘type A’ or coronary prone behaviour pattern.

The type A individual appears to be hostile, easily angered, competitive and hard-

driving. Research by oncologists interested in the behavioural causes of cancer

has suggested a ‘type C’ or cancer risk pattern (Temoshok et al., 1985). Type C

individuals are characterized by high levels of denial and suppression of various

emotions, in particular anger. Type C includes a number of other features including

‘pathological niceness’, conflict avoidance, high social desirability, harmonizing

behaviour, over-compliance, over-patience, as well as high rationality and a rigid

control of emotional expression. It is suggested that the excessive denial,

avoidance, suppression and repression of emotions that characterize type C over

time weaken the individual’s natural resistance to carcinogenic influences. Support

for the link between type C personality and cancer is found in studies relating

different immune parameters (natural killer cell activity, lymphocytes, serotonin

uptake, mean platelet volume) to mood states, coping styles and personality traits

(Cunningham, 1985). Alexithymia is a related personality type (a literal translation is

the lack of words for emotions), characterized by difficulty identifying, labelling and

understanding emotions, which is also found to be associated with negative health

outcomes. Evidence exists to suggest that alexithymia is linked to an increased risk

of developing cardiovascular disease (Waldstein et al., 2002). It has also been found

to be associated with blood pressure reactivity following written emotional

disclosure (O’Connor and Ashley, 2008; see also Focus 5.1).

FOCUS 6.1