Life Stress, Personality and Illness Behavior: A Prospective Study

Six personality dimensions derived from a principal components analysis of the 16 PF were examined as possible modifiers of the impact of recent life changes on illness behavior in a prospective study of a student sample ( N = 136). Results indicated that undesirable life changes significantly predicted illness behavior while total life changes did not. None of the six personality dimensions proved to be significant predictors of illness behavior. The results did, however, indicate a significant interaction between the dimension of sensitivity and life stress, with low scorers on this dimension showing a strong tendency to react to life stress with increased illness behavior while high scorers did not. This finding is interpreted in terms of Sheldrake's hypothesis that more outer-directed persons would tend to suppress direct evidence of stress and therefore discharge stresses through forms of illness commonly regarded as non-stress-related.