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  • Title: Personality differences between smokers and nonsmokers.
    Author: Thomas CB.
    Journal: Md State Med J; 1978 May; 27(5):63-6. PubMed ID: 642618.
    Abstract:
    Findings from a study of differences in personality traits among smoking and nonsmoking former Johns Hopkins University medical students are evaluated. Results of the long-term, cross-sectional comparisons indicate that individuals with different smoking habits were aware of reacting to stress in different ways. Scale scores for anxiety under stress increased significantly, on the average, with the quantity of cigarettes smoked daily. The scale scores for anger under stress showed a similar trend, but did not reach significance. Comparisons based on smoking habits over time indicate that continuing smokers differed significantly from lifetime smokers. Light continuing smokers showed more anxiety, and heavy continuing smokers showed more anger under stress, with former smokers in an intermediate position. When their strong vocational interest blanks were compared, the profiles of heavy smokers were significantly different from those of nonsmokers while they were medical students. When longitudinal comparisons were made later between former heavy smokers and continuing heavy smokers, 10 of the 11 occupational scales which significantly differentiated the nonsmokers from the heavy smokers in medical school also differentiated the former smokers from continuing smokers in the same direction. It is concluded that the habits of nervous tension, occupational profiles, and behavioral patterns related to heavy smoking reflect personality characteristics which are associated with difficulty in stopping smoking, while the characteristics of nonsmokers are related to personality dimensions which either make smoking distateful in the 1st place, or make it easy to stop.
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