Abstract

There is some evidence which suggesting personality traits which make a person prone to coronary heart disease(CHD) different from and in some cases are, contrary to those which make a person cancer-prone. This study attempts to delineate personality characteristics of patients with lung cancer and myocardial infarction(MI) based on the hypotheses of Eysenck and Grossarth-Maticek. Specifically, hypotheses of this study are as follows. Hypothesis I, compared to MI patients and control groups, patients with lung cancer will show more extraverted, lower neuroticism and psychoticism scores and more Type 1(or cancer-prone) personality tendencies. Hypothesis II, compared to patients with lung cancer and the control groups, MI patients will show more introverted, higher neuroticism and psychoticism scores and more Type 2(or CHD-prone) personality tendencies. Korean version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire(EPQ) and Grossarth-Maticek Personality Questionnaire were administered to three groups : 27 patients with lung cancer, 27 MI patients and 27 normal controls. In comparing the difference between the lung cancer and MI groups, the lung cancer group showed more extraverted, Type 1 personality tendency and lower neuroticism scores. In comparing the difference between two patient groups and the normal control group, the lung cancer group showed more extraverted and Type 1 personality tendency than the subjects in the MI and normal control groups. The two patient groups and the control group were classified by means of the discriminant analysis together with 6 personality variables, namely, extraversion-introversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, lie(or social desirability), Type 1, Type 2 personality. Type 1 personality along with the extraversion and neuroticism variables were selected and had been correctly classified in 64.2% of the cases. These results supported the hypotheses of this study.