COGNITIVE STYLES AND PERSONALITY-CHARACTERISTICS STRONGLY INFLUENCE THE DECISION TO HAVE PHOTOREFRACTIVE KERATECTOMY

BACKGROUND: A substantial number of patients who elect to undergo phot orefractive keratectomy do so without the motivation of occupational u ncorrected vision requirements. We hypothesized that information proce ssing preferences for the auditory (versus visual) modality in a globa l, associative (versus detailed, sensory-oriented) style with adaptabi lity and risk-taking (versus predictability) personality characteristi cs would predominate in patients electing photorefractive keratectomy. METHOD: Seventy three prospective photorefractive keratectomy patient s attended informational sessions. Sixteen occupationally driven patie nts and one refusal were excluded from the analysis. The 27 patients e lecting to proceed with surgery were compared with the 29 declining su rgery. Personality characteristics and cognitive styles were determine d by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Abbreviated Version and the Moda lity Strengths Indicator. RESULTS: Subjects electing surgery showed si gnificantly greater preferences for processing infomation in the audit ory modality and in a global, associative style, with adaptability and risk-taking personality characteristics. Combining the attributes sta tistically differentiated the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Specific cognit ive styles and personality characteristics strongly influence the choi ce to pursue photorefractive keratectomy when that choice is not occup ationally driven.