How does perceived control related to stress
In one classic study, nearly 7, Alameda County, California, residents were followed over 9 years. Those who had previously indicated that they lacked social and community ties were more likely to die during the follow-up period than those with more extensive social networks. Compared to those with the most social contacts, isolated men and women were, respectively, 2.
Since the time of that study, social support has emerged as one of the well-documented psychosocial factors affecting health outcomes Uchino, According to the researchers, the magnitude of the effect of social support observed in this study is comparable with quitting smoking and exceeded many well-known risk factors for mortality, such as obesity and physical inactivity.
A number of large-scale studies have found that individuals with low levels of social support are at greater risk of mortality, especially from cardiovascular disorders Brummett et al. Further, higher levels of social supported have been linked to better survival rates following breast cancer Falagas et al. In fact, a person with high levels of social support is less likely to contract a common cold. In one study, participants completed questionnaires assessing their sociability; these individuals were subsequently exposed to a virus that causes a common cold and monitored for several weeks to see who became ill.
For many of us, friends are a vital source of social support. But what if you found yourself in a situation in which you lacked friends or companions? For example, suppose a popular high school student attends a far-away college, does not know anyone, and has trouble making friends and meaningful connections with others during the first semester.
What can be done? If real life social support is lacking, access to distant friends via social media may help compensate. Also, for some people, our families—especially our parents—are a major source of social support. In addition, social support has been shown to reduce blood pressure for people performing stressful tasks, such as giving a speech or performing mental arithmetic Lepore, In these kinds of studies, participants are usually asked to perform a stressful task either alone, with a stranger present who may be either supportive or unsupportive , or with a friend present.
Although these findings are somewhat difficult to interpret, the authors mention that it is possible that females feel less supported and more evaluated by other females, particularly females whose opinions they value. Taken together, the findings above suggest one of the reasons social support is connected to favorable health outcomes is because it has several beneficial physiological effects in stressful situations.
However, it is also important to consider the possibility that social support may lead to better health behaviors, such as a healthy diet, exercising, smoking cessation, and cooperation with medical regimens Uchino, While having social support is quite beneficial, being the recipient of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behaviors is associated with a number of negative outcomes.
In their literature review, Brondolo, Brady, Pencille, Beatty, and Contrada describe how racial prejudice and discrimination serve as unique, significant stressors for those who are the targets of such attitudes and behavior.
Being the target of racism is associated with increased rates of depression, lowered self-esteem, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Given the complex and pervasive nature of racism as a stressor, Brondolo et al.
Their review is aimed at determining which coping strategies are most effective at offsetting negative health outcomes associated with racism-related stress. Focusing on racial identity refers to the process by which a person comes to feel as if he belongs to a given racial group; this may increase a sense of pride associated with group membership. Brondolo et al. Furthermore, the sense of belonging to his group might alleviate the distress of being ostracized by others.
However, the research literature on the effectiveness of this technique has produced mixed results. Put simply, a target of racist attitudes and behaviors can act upon her anger or suppress her anger. As discussed by Brondolo et al. In the end, racism-related stress is a complex issue and each of the coping strategies discussed here has strengths and weaknesses.
Beyond having a sense of control and establishing social support networks, there are numerous other means by which we can manage stress.
A common technique people use to combat stress is exercise Salmon, There is considerable evidence that physically fit individuals are more resistant to the adverse effects of stress and recover more quickly from stress than less physically fit individuals Cotton, One reason exercise may be beneficial is because it might buffer some of the deleterious physiological mechanisms of stress.
One study found rats that exercised for six weeks showed a decrease in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal responsiveness to mild stressors Campeau et al. In high-stress humans, exercise has been shown to prevent telomere shortening, which may explain the common observation of a youthful appearance among those who exercise regularly Puterman et al.
This scale has been frequently used to assess health locus of control. Family empowerment. The Koren, Dechillo, and Friesen Family Empowerment Scale consists of 34 items with a 5-point response scale "not at all true" to "very true.
Perceived Behavioral Control Measures of perceived behavioral control are usually devised by the researchers for a particular study, though many studies use items similar to the ones developed by Armitage and Connor Examples of items from Armitage and Connor are "Whether or not I eat a low fat diet is entirely up to me," and "How much personal control do you feel you have over eating a low-fat diet?
Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy, as originally conceived by Bandura , is specific to a particular outcome. A large number of self-efficacy scales that are specific to a particular health behavior have been developed.
Many studies have also used items developed just for that particular study. See: self-efficacy. Locus of Control General locus of control. A sample item pairing is, "I have often found that what is going to happen will happen" vs. Interestingly, it was difficult to locate recent published in the past 20 years health behavior studies that used general LOC.
Almost all studies used a general perceived control or health-related LOC. Rotter's scale is available in Robinson, Shaver, and Wrightsman Specific locus of control. There are several examples of specific locus of control scales. Donovan and O'Leary have created a item Drinking Locus of Control scale rated on a forced-choice format pairing internal and external control alternatives. A sample pairing is, "I feel so helpless in some situations that I need a drink" vs.
The four-item Weight Locus of Control scale, developed by Saltzer , assesses how one's weight is determined, ranging from internal to external determinants. The scale is rated on a 6-point Likert scale strongly disagree to strongly agree. A sample item is, "Being the right weight is largely a matter of good fortune. However, among those with an external sense of weight locus of control, normative beliefs predict weight loss intentions Saltzer, The scale measures four components of self-control:.
Examples of sample items are, "When I do a boring job, I think about the less boring parts of the job and the reward I will receive when I finish," and "When I am feeling depressed, I try to think about pleasant events.
Zuckerman, Knee, Kieffer, Rawsthorne, and Bruce's Realistic and Unrealistic Control Scales consist of 33 items measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree.
An example of a realistic control item is: "Success in life depends mostly on how hard you study or work. Illusory control. The Illusory Control Scale by Friedland, Kienan, and Regev assesses control over uncontrollable events via hypothetical situations; for instance, by asking the respondent to indicate whether they would rather choose their own lottery ticket numbers or rely on the machine to choose. The scale consists of 5 items assessed on a point Likert scale e. The Illusory Control Scale was associated with greater use of illusory i.
Desired control. Reid and Zeigler's Desired Control Scale contains 70 items rated on a 5-point response scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree.
Sample items are: "How important is it to you that you maintain your health? Decision involvement questionnaire. Thompson, Pitts, and Schwankovsky have developed a measure of decision involvement. Respondents read four vignettes describing various medical problems and rate who should make the treatment decision on a 5-point scale from "the doctor alone" to "you alone.
There are two treatment programs that are medically appropriate for your condition. You can either have surgery that will be painful and require bed rest for a month OR you can enter a twice-a-week rehabilitation program for a year. Both have a 90 percent chance of success. Armitage, C. Can the theory of planned behavior predict the maintenance of physical activity? Health Psychology, 24 , Distinguishing perceptions of control from self-efficacy: Predicting consumption of a low fat diet using the theory of planned behavior.
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Burger, J. Desire for control: Personality, social, and clinical perspectives. New York: Plenum Press. The desirability of control. Motivation and Emotion, 3 , Cox, R. Who wants a hearing aid? Personality profiles of hearing aid seekers.
Ear and Hearing, 26 , Personal causation: The internal affective determinants of behavior. New York: Academic Press. DeSocio, J. Testing the relationship between self-agency and enactment of health behaviors. Research in Nursing and Health, 26 , Donovan, D. The drinking-related locus of control scale: Reliability, factor structure and validity.
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In the first step we entered the control variables, and in the second step we entered the main effect of the coping strategy of interest. Finally, we tested mediation by perceived control in the relationship between coping and psychological well-being following the mediation analysis approach of Baron and Kenny Results are shown in Tables 2 , 3.
If the CI excludes zero, there is evidence for a significant indirect effect. Table 2. Table 3. We argued that active confronting, seeking social support, reassuring thoughts, and expressing emotions would be more engaged coping styles. We proposed that more engaged coping styles should be associated with higher perceived control, which in turn should be associated with higher psychological well-being.
People who scored higher on active confronting experienced a higher sense of control and higher psychological well-being. When including both active confronting and perceived sense of control in the regression analysis, we found that the strength of the relationship between active confronting and psychological well-being was reduced, while the effect of perceived sense of control was significant, supporting partial mediation.
Indeed, this suggests that people who use more active confronting reported higher well-being due to a higher perceived sense of control. Opposite to our reasoning, seeking social support was not significantly associated with perceived control and psychological well-being. We thus found no support for seeking social support as a potentially effective coping strategy. People who scored higher on reassuring thoughts experienced a higher sense of control and higher psychological well-being.
These results imply that people who use more reassuring thoughts reported higher well-being due to a higher perceived sense of control. Expressing emotions was not significantly associated with psychological well-being, and negatively associated with perceived control.
We thus found no support for expressing emotions as a potentially effective coping strategy. Even though expressing emotions was not directly associated with psychological well-being, this analysis indicates that there was an indirect effect via perceived control. However, in contrast to our theoretical reasoning, this relationship was negative rather than positive. We argued that passive reaction pattern, palliative reaction, and avoidance would be more disengaged coping styles.
For these disengaged coping styles, we argued these are associated with lower perceived control, which in turn should be associated with lower psychological well-being. People who scored higher on passive reaction pattern experienced a lower sense of control and lower psychological well-being. When including both passive reaction pattern and perceived sense of control in the regression analysis, we found that the strength of the relationship between passive reaction pattern and psychological well-being was reduced, while the effect of perceived sense of control was significant, supporting partial mediation.
Indeed, it seems to be the case that people who use more passive reaction pattern reported lower well-being due to a reduced perceived sense of control. Palliative reaction showed a negative relationship with both perceived control and psychological well-being.
When entering both palliative reaction and perceived control in the analysis, the original significant association between palliative coping and psychological well-being became non-significant, while the association between perceived control and psychological well-being was significant.
People who scored higher on avoidance experienced a lower sense of control and lower psychological well-being. These results suggest that people who use more avoidance reported lower well-being due to a lower perceived sense of control. Above, we reported the analyses for each coping strategy separately. However, we categorized different coping strategies in engagement and disengagement coping.
To probe whether our data support this distinction in coping strategies, we subjected the 47 coping items of the the Utrecht Coping List UCL; Schreurs et al. This first factor analysis showed that the expressing emotions items did not clearly distinguish between the two factors. We therefore omitted these items from the analyses below, and subjected the remaining 42 items to another exploratory factor analysis requesting two factors.
In an exploratory fashion, we re-ran the analyses for these two composite coping variables see Table 4. Table 4. People who scored higher on engagement coping experienced a higher sense of control and higher psychological well-being. Again, it seems to be the case that people who use more engagement coping strategies reported higher well-being due to a higher perceived sense of control. Disengagement coping was negatively related to perceived sense of control and psychological well-being.
These findings lend support for our prediction that a disengaged way of handling stressors is related to lower well-being because it is associated with less perceived control. Given the cross-sectional nature of our study, we also examined two alternative models in an exploratory fashion. In the first alternative indirect effect model, we examined perceived control as independent variable, coping strategies as mediator, and psychological well-being as dependent variable.
Table 5. In the second alternative model, we tested the complete reversed directional model from psychological well-being to control to coping strategies. Again, these results are weaker than for our theoretical model see Table 5. These exploratory analyses seem to suggest stronger support for our theoretical model than for models in which the direction of the relationships between the variables is partially reversed. Our results showed that the coping strategies of passive reaction pattern, palliative reaction and avoidance were consistently and negatively related to perceived control and therefore to less well-being.
Such disengaged behaviors lead a person to experience a lack of control, and potentially a lack of possibilities to confront the stressor Latack, ; Dijkstra et al. Our results concerning active confronting and reassuring thoughts revealed a positive relationship with perceived control and through perceived control with more well-being. Seeking social support, however, was not related to either well-being or control and therefore could not be regarded as an effective coping strategy.
Elaborating on this further it can be argued that the extent to which seeking social support will be related to perceived control is contingent on the success of the search. In other words is seeking social support resulting in actually getting social support? If not, for example when asked support when in fear of job loss is being denied, a lack of possibilities to confront the stressor might be experienced. Indeed, in light of the importance of social support for health and well-being Tian et al.
The coping strategy expressing emotions also was not related to well-being but there was a significant relationship with perceived control. This relationship was, however, in the opposite direction of what we expected. In line with this inconsistent finding, our exploratory factor analysis indicated that expressing emotions did not clearly map onto engagement or disengagement coping, but was negatively related to control, and indirectly negatively to well-being.
When examining the items pertaining to this coping style e. Finally, expressing anger or frustration might be associated with a lack of perceived control, given that these emotions do not help to reappraise or handle the stressor, and as such might be associated with diminished well-being Leonard and Alison, Whereas past research has clearly supported control as being relevant for well-being Mirowsky and Ross, ; Thoits, ; Turner and Lloyd, ; Chipperfield et al.
The main contribution of this study therefore is that it suggests an important role of control in the stress process and that it deepens our understanding of the differential effectiveness of different coping strategies Britt et al. Indeed, perceived sense of control might be identified as an important explaining variable in the relationship between coping and psychological well-being. Rather than merely activating or de-activating someone, the lack of engagement implied by disengagement strategies is correlated to feeling that the situation is outside of someone's control, which in turn is associated with negative consequences.
In line with the theoretical reasoning that the most insightful distinction in coping strategies is engagement vs. However, given that expressing emotions did not satisfactorily fit in with one of the two factors, and that reassuring thoughts when analyzed separately showed no effects, our findings also suggest that when categorizing coping styles into broader categories, certain styles might involve a variety of strategies and behaviors.
This points to the importance of theoretical development based on fundamental research, and a potential more fine-grained examination of these relationships in future research. We acknowledge that our data are of cross-sectional nature. This means that we cannot claim that the relationships really are in the direction we propose them to be.
We are relatively confident, however, that our results will replicate in a more robust research design. This confidence is based on our examination of two different exploratory indirect effect models in which a coping strategies were the mediator, perceived control the independent variable, and psychological well-being as the outcome, and b psychological well-being influenced coping strategies via perceived control.
Inspection of these models revealed far less strong indirect effects, some null-effects which were previously significant e. However, in order to develop stronger theoretical notions concerning the role of control in the stress process, a thorough examination of the different coping strategies as to their potential to elicit a sense of control is needed. Since its purpose of developing theory, such research would preferably be of experimental nature. Creating conditions in which different coping strategies are induced would allow for more causal explanations concerning the relationship between a particular coping strategy and perceived sense of control.
These relationship could then be further examined conducting longitudinal research in order to test whether more engagement coping will indeed lead to more perceived control over time, which in turn might be positively related to psychological well-being. Apart from the correlational nature of our study, a second limitation is the lack of information on the participant's locus of control.
As locus of control has been discussed as a potential predictor of the use of certain coping strategies e. However, locus of control is often seen as a relatively stable trait, which is difficult to influence. Our data seem to indicate that perceived control is influenced by coping strategies, and thus can vary depending on which coping style is employed.
As the two composite coping styles are positively correlated, it seems unlikely that locus of control is an alternative explanation of our findings.
Additionally, although our findings seem to indicate that influencing someone's sense of control might be a fruitful intervention for dealing with stress, future research might empirically test such an intervention. Finally, in the current study, we did not investigate the context in which the coping strategy was employed. In line with the less consistent findings regarding seeking social support and expressing emotions, it might be the case that certain coping strategies are more or less needed or become more or less effective in certain contexts, for certain people, or in certain situations Mucci et al.
For instance, control might be more relevant to the degree that the stressful situation is more ambiguous, certain coping strategies might be more effective for more optimistic people, and one's standing in the organizational hierarchy might affect the opportunity to employ certain coping strategies. It would be interesting for future research to take such moderating factors into account. In sum, our data provide some preliminary insights into why different coping strategies can have negative or positive effects on psychological well-being.
By increasing a sense of control, some coping strategies that are more engaging i. Organizations could use these findings to actively coach and train their employees to seek effective control over stressful situations, and to teach them to employ engaged rather than disengaged coping styles.
AH provided substantial contributions to the research conception and design. MD and AH analyzed and interpreted the data. MD wrote the paper, AH provided critical revisions of the paper. MD and AH both attended to the revision of the paper. MD and AH both approved of this version of the paper to be published. The authors thank Nishi Ramlal for collecting the data.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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