efined by Eysenck, the type one personality tends towards hopelessness, helplessness and suppression of emotion; and are prone to cancer (Hassed, 1998). Those categorised as type two experience anxiety, aggression, ambition and they express emotion inappropriately. These people are more prone towards heart disease. By contrast type three are sensitive and gregarious. They communicate better, tend to be optimistic, and are able to remain calm under stress. These individuals have significantly fewer illness, especially cancer and heart disease (Hassed, 1998). Hassed undertook two longitudinal studies aimed at testing Eysenck's hypotheses. The first showed that individual's with type three personality lived longer, and that cancer or heart disease being the cause of death was significantly decreased (Hassed, 1998). Of particular interest is Hassed's second longitudinal investigation, carried out over seven years, involving 490 cancer and heart disease prone individuals. The group that undertook a six months autonomy training program (therapy group), when followed up seven years later, had a death rate of only 20%. The group that received no therapy (control group), at the end of seven years, had a death rate of 76%. Especially in relation to cancer prone individuals, Hassed's findings clearly show that the effects of stress (exhibited through hopelessness, helplessness and suppression of emotion) upon the immune system (cancer) influence health outcomes (in this case positively).Animals exposed to uncontrollable (and acute) stress conditions showed depleted norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin levels in some brain areas, resulting in learned helplessness behaviour (Wade and Tavris, 1993; Abramson, Seligman and Teasdale, 1978, cited Wade et al, 1993; Seligman and Gregory, 1996). Further studies confirmed this causal relationship between behavioural helplessness, the immune systems, suppression of lymphocyte function, and faster...
