International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare personality traits, values and coping strategies of the behavior of people with oncological diseases and healthy people. Two groups of people took part in our study and were examined using a clinical interview and an experimental psychological method, which included three techniques: The Minnesota multidimensional personality questionnaire (MMPI) (S Hatway, and D McKinley, 1949); The questionnaire "Values in Action" (K Peterson, and M Seligman, 2001); The "Way of Coping Questionnaire" (R Lazarus, and S Folkman, 1988). The main group consisted of people with oncological diseases, 78 white race people (N=78), of which 61.54% were female. The average age of the examined persons with oncological diseases is 54.08�?±4.54 years. The control group consisted of healthy individuals who did not have cancer, including 30 people (N=30), among whom 63% were female. The mean age of the control group was 54.78�?±4.55 years. All the personality indicators of oncological patients are higher than of healthy people, excepting the scores of impulsiveness and optimism, which are lower. The overcontrol, asthenia, pessimism, emotional lability (demonstrativeness), anxiety and individuality scales are significantly differenced among the groups surveyed. Humanism and love, Moderation, and Spirituality are three kinds of positive values that reliably distinguish oncological patients from healthy people. For healthy people, the strategy of confrontation is more preferable than for oncological patients. All studying psychological features of oncological patients are more adaptive and socially mature in comparison with healthy people that requires further investigation in the future.

Biography

Olga N Sharova has completed her Master of Science at the age of 27 years from South Ural State Medical University, Chelyabinsk, Russia. She is the associate professor of the Psychiatry Department of South Ural State Medical University, Chelyabinsk. At the same time, she is the teacher of the Department of General Psychology, Psychodiagnostics and Psychological Counseling of South Ural State University (NRU), Chelyabinsk, Russia, and the doctor-psychotherapist of the Chelyabinsk Regional Clinical Center of Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Chelyabinsk Russia. She has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals..

E-mail: onsharova@yandex.ru