Cynical Mistrust and the search for self-worth.

Cynical Mistrust was examined among 64 medical and surgical patients, 23 of whom were selected for a history of CHD and 41 for an absence of such a history. Cynical Mistrust was found to differentiate subjects with a positive history from those without such a history. As hypothesized, persons scoring high in Cynical Mistrust also scored high in Self-Worth by Social Comparison, Playing Hardball with Others and Self-Criticism. Surprisingly, high scorers in Cynical Mistrust among subjects with a coronary history also scored high in Dependency on others for validation that they were deserving of being loved. We suggest that the pathogenicity of Cynical Mistrust for CHD may be potentiated by the presence of certain other dispositions. Further investigation of dependency on others in particular appears to be worthwhile in order to determine whether consideration of this disposition can improve the identification of risk for CHD.