Suppression of negative affect in cancer patients. Trauma and defensiveness of self-esteem as predictors of depression and anxiety

The results of the work show that the relatively small differences in declared, negative emotional states (such as depression or anxiety) between people suffering and not suffering from cancer can be explained by the suppression of negative affect in the former. It was assumed that the suppression is related to a compensation of an automatic, affective self-assessment - i.e. implicit self-esteem, lower in cancer patients. The results confirmed that the connection of cancer and depression (similarly cancer and anxiety) became significantly stronger while the self-esteem defensiveness and past stress are statistically controlled.