The relationship between personality and health is an enduring topic of
interest and has resulted in at least 4 distinct `types¿ or
constellations of traits (types A, B C and D) said to have significant
risk or protective impact on cardiac health. For instance, a tendency
towards negative affectivity and social inhibition defines the type D
person and appears to be related to poor cardiac prognosis. This is
similar to the type C cluster of co-operative, unassertive, patient and
suppressing traits that supposedly leads to cancer proneness rather than
coronary disease. A principal caveat that infuses the research in this
area is the fact that measurement of these constellations is often
vague and psychometrically unconvincing.
The aim of this study
was to develop a psychometrically robust measure that taps into both the
type C and type D domain. This paper describes the development of a
short 26-item inventory that reliably measures 3 super-ordinate facets
of both type C and type D trait constellations. A total sample of 2093
respondents ranging in age from 18 to 77 were used in the development of
the tool, now named the Disease Resistance Questionnaire (DRQ). While
the reliability and construct validity of the DRQ appears strong,
concurrent validation using the Grossarth-Maticek Personality-Stress
Inventory, the Attitudes Towards Emotional Expression Scale, the
Interpersonal Support Evaluation List 12 and the Generalized Self
Efficacy Scale produced ambiguous results with little discrimination
between the scales. These initial results highlight the clear overlap
between the characteristics that define C and D types. In addition it
is suggested that both C and D are likely to influence the response to
disease after its onset rather than serve as indicators to disease
proneness.