Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Type B behavior pattern
A cluster of 
behaviors characterized by a patient, 
cooperative, noncompetitive, and 
nonaggressive manner.
Study Alert
It’s important to distinguish 
among Type A (hostility, 
competitiveness), Type B 
(patience, cooperative-
ness), and Type D 
(distressed) behaviors.
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 Module 
44 
Psychological Aspects of Illness and Well-Being 
487
is possible that positive emotional responses may help generate specialized “killer” 
cells that help control the size and spread of cancerous tumors. Conversely, negative 
emotions may suppress the ability of those cells to fi ght tumors (Schedlowski & 
Tewes, 1999; Noy, 2006). 
Is a particular personality type linked to cancer? Some researchers suggest that 
cancer patients are less emotionally reactive, suppress anger, and lack outlets for 
emotional release. However, the data are too tentative and inconsistent to suggest 
fi rm conclusions about a link between personality characteristics and cancer. Cer-
tainly no conclusive evidence suggests that people who develop cancer would not 
have done so if their personality had been of a different sort or if their attitudes had 
been more positive (Smith, 1988; Zevon & Corn, 1990; Holland & Lewis, 2001). 
What is increasingly clear, however, is that certain types of psychological therapy 
have the potential for improving quality of life and even extending the lives of can-
cer patients. For example, the results of one study showed that women with breast 
cancer who received psychological treatment lived at least a year and a half longer 
and experienced less anxiety and pain than women who did not participate in ther-
apy. Research on patients with other health problems, such as heart disease, also has 
found that therapy can be both psychologically and medically benefi cial (Spiegel, 
1996; Frasure-Smith, Lesperance, & Talajic, 2000; Butler et al., 2009).
Smoking
Would you walk into a convenience store and buy an item with a label warning you 
that its use could kill you? Although most people would probably answer no, mil-
lions make such a purchase everyday: a pack of cigarettes. Furthermore, they do this 
despite clear, well-publicized evidence that smoking is linked to cancer, heart attacks, 
strokes, bronchitis, emphysema, and a host of other serious illnesses. Smoking is the 
greatest preventable cause of death in the United States; one in fi ve U.S. deaths is 
caused by smoking. Worldwide, close to 5 million people die each year from the 
effects of smoking (Danaei et al., 2005).