Attitude towards aggression and creative functioning in patients with breast cancer
(1998) In Perceptual and Motor Skills 87(1). p.291-303- Abstract
Three projective personality tests were used to assess attitude to aggression (The Identification Test), anxiety and defenses (The Meta-Contrast Technique) and creative functioning (The Creative Functioning Test) in 70 patients with breast cancer. Discriminant analyses were applied pro primo to characterize psychologically patients with a better prognosis and patients with a poorer prognosis. A second aim was to characterize psychologically older (postmenopausal) and younger (premenopausal) women. Generally, high scores on the Identification Test indicated maladaptive attitudes towards aggression among all the patients. Patients with a poorer prognosis showed responses that in healthy subjects indicate acknowledgement of aggressive... (More)
Three projective personality tests were used to assess attitude to aggression (The Identification Test), anxiety and defenses (The Meta-Contrast Technique) and creative functioning (The Creative Functioning Test) in 70 patients with breast cancer. Discriminant analyses were applied pro primo to characterize psychologically patients with a better prognosis and patients with a poorer prognosis. A second aim was to characterize psychologically older (postmenopausal) and younger (premenopausal) women. Generally, high scores on the Identification Test indicated maladaptive attitudes towards aggression among all the patients. Patients with a poorer prognosis showed responses that in healthy subjects indicate acknowledgement of aggressive impulses, perhaps suggesting lack of "defenses" against such impulses among those patients. Another way to describe it would be that patients with a better prognosis seem to have (normally nonadaptive) "defenses" against aggressive impulses while those with poorer prognosis have not. Surprisingly, the patients with a better prognosis (but not those with a poorer prognosis) gave responses classified as depression in the Meta-Contrast Technique. Typical of premenopausal patients were responses classified as anxiety as well as reaction formation on the Identification Test. Responses classified as adaptive defenses (isolation) were seen in the Meta-Contrast Technique. A surprising finding was that many of these patients were characterized by high scores on the creativity test. These original statistically significant findings of attitudes towards aggression and creative functioning in breast cancer patients are discussed in relation to the underlying nature of aggression and creativity.
(Less)
- author
- Lilja, Åsa LU ; Smith, Gudmund LU ; Malmström, Per LU and Salford, Leif G. LU
- publishing date
- 1998
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- keywords
- Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aggression/psychology, Attitude, Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis, Creativity, Defense Mechanisms, Female, Humans, Menopause/psychology, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Projective Techniques
- in
- Perceptual and Motor Skills
- volume
- 87
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 291 - 303
- publisher
- PERCEPTUAL MOTOR SKILLS
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:0032132724
- pmid:9760660
- ISSN
- 0031-5125
- DOI
- 10.2466/pms.1998.87.1.291
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- c97dda0b-b246-4b1c-b721-4a898eb0117c
- date added to LUP
- 2022-03-02 10:30:05
- date last changed
- 2024-01-04 23:16:11
@article{c97dda0b-b246-4b1c-b721-4a898eb0117c,
abstract = {{<p>Three projective personality tests were used to assess attitude to aggression (The Identification Test), anxiety and defenses (The Meta-Contrast Technique) and creative functioning (The Creative Functioning Test) in 70 patients with breast cancer. Discriminant analyses were applied pro primo to characterize psychologically patients with a better prognosis and patients with a poorer prognosis. A second aim was to characterize psychologically older (postmenopausal) and younger (premenopausal) women. Generally, high scores on the Identification Test indicated maladaptive attitudes towards aggression among all the patients. Patients with a poorer prognosis showed responses that in healthy subjects indicate acknowledgement of aggressive impulses, perhaps suggesting lack of "defenses" against such impulses among those patients. Another way to describe it would be that patients with a better prognosis seem to have (normally nonadaptive) "defenses" against aggressive impulses while those with poorer prognosis have not. Surprisingly, the patients with a better prognosis (but not those with a poorer prognosis) gave responses classified as depression in the Meta-Contrast Technique. Typical of premenopausal patients were responses classified as anxiety as well as reaction formation on the Identification Test. Responses classified as adaptive defenses (isolation) were seen in the Meta-Contrast Technique. A surprising finding was that many of these patients were characterized by high scores on the creativity test. These original statistically significant findings of attitudes towards aggression and creative functioning in breast cancer patients are discussed in relation to the underlying nature of aggression and creativity.</p>}},
author = {{Lilja, Åsa and Smith, Gudmund and Malmström, Per and Salford, Leif G.}},
issn = {{0031-5125}},
keywords = {{Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aggression/psychology; Attitude; Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis; Creativity; Defense Mechanisms; Female; Humans; Menopause/psychology; Middle Aged; Prognosis; Projective Techniques}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{291--303}},
publisher = {{PERCEPTUAL MOTOR SKILLS}},
series = {{Perceptual and Motor Skills}},
title = {{Attitude towards aggression and creative functioning in patients with breast cancer}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pms.1998.87.1.291}},
doi = {{10.2466/pms.1998.87.1.291}},
volume = {{87}},
year = {{1998}},
}