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Abstract
The idea of a cancer-prone personality type has been raised in numerous studies. Although no clear personality type has emerged from this research, the inability to express emotion has been reported consistently. Evidence for this trait is based solely on self-report measures or clinical observations; no objective behavioral data are available to validate its existence. The present study was designed to obtain objective ratings of behavior under conditions of experimentally manipulated stress for a group of breast cancer patients and a group of healthy women. The data supported the hypothesis that the breast cancer patients would be more emotionally inhibited. Self-report measures indicated that although the patients tended to control or repress their emotional reactions, they were more anxious and disturbed as a result of the stress manipulation than were the controls. The results are discussed in relation to current theories of emotion and to psychobiological models.