Personality was studied as a conditioner of the effects of stressful life events on illness onset. Two groups of middle and upper level executives had comparably high degrees of stressful life events in the previous 3 years, as measured by the Holmes and Rahe Schedule of Recent Life Events. One group (n = 86) suffered high stress without falling ill, whereas the other (n = 75) reported becoming sick after their encounter with stressful life events. Illness was measured by the Wyler, Masuda, and Holmes Seriousness of Illness Survey. Discriminant function analysis, run on half of the subjects in each group and cross-validated on the remaining cases, supported the prediction that high stress/low illness executives show, by comparison with high stress/high illness executives, more hardiness, that is, have a stronger commitment to self, an attitude of vigorousness toward the environment, a sense of meaningfulness, and an internal locus of control.

Utilizing a prospective design, this study tested the hypothesis that hardinesscommitment, control, and challenge-functions to decrease the effect of stressful life events in producing illness symptoms. Subjects were middle-and upper-level managers who filled out questionnaires covering a period of 5 years. Results support the hypothesis by showing main effects on illness for both stressful life events and hardiness and an interaction effect for these independent variables. Implications for coping with stress are discussed.

This study examined personality, social assets, and perceived social support as moderators of the effects of stressful life events on illness onset. In a group of 170 middle and upper level executives, personality hardiness and stressful life events consistently influenced illness scores, the former serving to lower symptomatology, the latter to increase it. Perceived boss support had its predicted positive effect. Executives under high stress who perceived support from their supervisors had lower illness scores than those without support. Perceived family support, on the other hand, showed a negative effect on health when reported by those low in hardiness. Finally, social assets made no significant impact on health status. These results underscore the value of differentiating between kinds of social resources, and of monitoring the effects of two or more stress-resistance resources in a single study.

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Stress resistance was studied in 157 general practice lawyers. No simple direct correlation was found between lawyers' stressful life-event levels and their reports of diagnosable illness. There is a significant relationship between lawyers' stress experience and their complaints of strain symptomatology, but this is mediated by two stress-resistance resources. Increases in strain are significantly determined by the personality characteristic of alienation (vs. commitment) and the use of regressive coping techniques, as well as by stress levels. Social support and exercise were not found to significantly affect the degree of strain reported.