Type C personality: traits of this behavior pattern

The type C personality pattern, characterized by the inhibition of negative emotions and the presence of depressive traits, has been associated with the evolution of cancer once this disease has appeared.

However, the most recent research on the relationship between personality and cancer has diminished the credibility of this hypothesis.

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Personality patterns A, B, C and D

In 1959 cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman described the Type A personality pattern., characterized by its role as a risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disorders. Among the distinctive features of this personality style are anxiety, ambition, rigidity, impatience, competitiveness and hostility.

Later on, the concept of “type B personality pattern” also began to be used to describe individuals with a lower tendency to become involved in stressful situations. People with this personality tend to be thoughtful and creative.

They seek to enjoy their lives to a greater extent than Type A's and are not always achievement oriented.

These two personality patterns were also added to type C and type D. The type C personality, which we will discuss in depth below, includes repression as its defining traits. emotional and hopelessness, and it has been attributed a certain predictive capacity in the evolution of cancer, although not in its appearance.

Finally we find the type D personality pattern, which was described by Denollet et al. (1996) and worsen the evolution of cardiac problems. The letter “D” comes from the word “distressed”, which means “distressed”. It is defined as a combination between the tendency to social inhibition and to feel negative emotions, such as sadness, irritability and worry.

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Type C Personality Characteristics

The descriptions that have been made of the type C personality pattern vary depending on the specific research or literature. In general we can highlight five main personality traits: emotional control, emotional repression, understanding, rationality and the need for harmony. Each description highlights one or other factors.

The key point of this personality style is the inhibition or repression of negative emotions; we refer to sadness, fear and especially anger. In addition, a marked absence of dominance and hostility behaviors and a tendency towards stoic acceptance of negative life events are detected.

People who fit the Type C pattern often have difficulty coping with stressful situationsespecially in a direct and active way. This trait causes depressive-like psychological reactionssuch as expectations of helplessness or hopelessness about the future.

From this it can be deduced that the type C personality pattern leads to the fact that, when cancer appears, the person affected faces the disease and the negative emotions derived from it insufficiently, which could seriously interfere with the treatment.

The characteristics attributed to the type C personality pattern bring it closer to other similar constructs. They deserve a special mention. types 1 and 5 of the classification of stress reactions developed by Eysenck and Grossarth-Maticek (1990), both associated with an increased risk of cancer, according to these authors.

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Scientific evidence about it

Although research has confirmed the predictive ability of the type A personality pattern with respect to cardiovascular disease, the same cannot be said of the type C pattern. Even in its origin this was still an attempt to apply the Friedman and Rosenman hypothesis to medical disorders other than those of the circulatory system.

In the 1990s, this construct was preliminarily accepted by many members of the scientific community, but soon the inconsistency in the findings began to become apparent around its predictive capacity in cancer. Among other aspects, the irregularity in the definition of the C personality pattern makes it difficult to compare between studies.

It is currently believed that the supposed association between emotional inhibition and the development or evolution of cancer, if it exists, would be mediated by certain maladaptive coping styles or by other intermediary variables, and in no case would it be specific to this disease.

The prospective macro study by Nakaya et al. (2003), like many other investigations, refutes the idea that personality traits associated with neuroticism have a causal role in cancer. In addition, it is suggested that in the relationship found by other authors between this disease and anxiety, there may be an inverse causality to that studied.

Bibliographic references:

• Blatny, M. & Adam, Z. (2008). Type C personality (cancer personality): current view and implications for future research. Vnitr̆ní lékar̆ství, 54(6): 638-45.

• Cardona Serna, E. J., Jaramillo, A. c. & Diaz Facio Lince, V. AND. (2013). Relationship between type C personality and cancer: State of the art. Psychospaces: Virtual Journal of Social and Human Sciences, 7(10): 66-92.

• Denollet, J., Sys, S. U., Stroobant, N., Rombouts, H., Gillebert, T. C., & Brutsaert, D. L. (February 1996). Personality as independent predictor of long-term mortality in patients with coronary heart disease. Lancet, 347(8999): 417–21.

• Friedmann, M. & Rosenman, R. (1959). Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings. Journal of the American Medical Association, 169: 1286–1296.

• Grossarth-Maticek, R. & Eysenck, H. J. (1990). Personality stress and disease: Description and validation of a new inventory. Psychological Reports, 66: 355-73.

• Nakaya, N., Tsubono, Y., Hosokawa, T., Nishino, Y., Ohkubo, T., Hozawa, A., Shibuya, D., Fukudo, S., Fukao, A., Tsuji, I. & Hisamichi, S. (2003). Personality and the risk of cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 95(11): 799-805.