• Evangelos C Karademas and Ioannis Tsaousis.
• Department of Psychology, University of Crete, 74100, Gallos, Rethymnon, Greece, karademas@psy.soc.uoc.gr.
• Ann Behav Med. 2014 Feb 1; 47 (1): 79-91.

BackgroundLittle is known about the ways that personality is related to patient health, although there is some evidence that illness self-regulation as well as partner personality play a significant role.PurposeThe aim of the two present studies was to examine the intra-personal (i.e., through illness representations) and the inter-personal (i.e., partner) effects of personality on cardiac patients' subjective health.MethodsOne hundred fifteen patients participated in study 1; 75 patients and their spouses participated in study 2.ResultsThe representations of illness consequences, personal control, and the attribution of illness to emotional causes mediated the relation of personality to health (first study). The relations of patients' extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness to their health were statistically significant at the higher levels (+1 SD) of spouse corresponding traits (second study).ConclusionPersonality affects patients' health through illness representations (intrapersonal level), as well as by interacting with partner personality (interpersonal level).

17 keywords...

hide…