Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:13:53.498Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Perceived control

from Psychology, health and illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

Kenneth A. Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
Get access

Summary

Perceived control (also referred to as an internal locus of control orientation, perceived personal control, perceived competence, self-efficacy or a sense of mastery) has been defined as the belief that one can determine one's own internal states and behaviour, influence one's environment and/or bring about desired outcomes (Wallston, Wallston, Smith & Dobbins, 1987). If people say that things are under their control, they are saying that they are able to determine or influence important events or situations (Walker, 2001), including their own actions or those of other people.

Perceived control has long been ‘recognized as a central concept in the understanding of the relationships between stressful experience, behaviours and health. Experimental investigations indicate that control over aversive stimulation has profound effects on autonomic, endocrine and immunological responses, and may influence the pathological processes implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease, tumour rejection and proliferation, and the acquisition of gastrointestinal lesions’ (Steptoe & Appels, 1989).

It is critical to understand the distinction between actual control – the objective responsiveness of an event to influence by human or other factors – and perceived control which might bear little correspondence to reality. The mental and physical health benefits which have been associated with control have been related more to the subjective perception that control exists than to the objective determination of that control. A person's wellbeing is a function of the degree to which they feel in control, not how much they are in control.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behaviour change. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 191–215.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: the exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Connor-Smith, J. K. & Compas, B. E. (2004). Coping as a moderator of relations between reactivity to interpersonal stress, health status, and internalizing problems. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 347–68.Google Scholar
Glass, D. C. & Singer, J. E. (1972). Behavioural aftereffects of unpredictable and uncontrollable aversive events. American Scientist, 60, 457–65.Google Scholar
Heckhausen, J. & Schulz, R. (1995). A life-span theory of control. Psychological Review, 102, 284–304.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Lorig, K., Chastain, R., Ung, E., Shoor, S. & Holman, H. (1989). Development and evaluation of a scale to measure the perceived self-efficacy of people with arthritis. Arthritis and Rheumatism, 32, 37–44.Google Scholar
Pearlin, L. I. & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 19, 2–21.Google Scholar
Rothbaum, F., Weisz, J. R. & Snyder, S. S. (1982). Changing the world and changing the self: a two-process model of perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 5–37.Google Scholar
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal vs. external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80, 1–28.Google Scholar
Schwarzer, R. (Ed.). (1992). Self-efficacy: thought control of action. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness. San Francisco: Freeman.
Shapiro, D. H. Jr. & Astin, J. A. (1998). Control therapy: an integrated approach to psychotherapy, health, and healing. New York: Wiley.
Sinclair, V. G., Wallston, K. A., Dwyer, K. A., Blackburn, D. S. & Fuchs, H. (1998). Effects of a cognitive–behavioural intervention for women with rheumatoid arthritis. Research in Nursing and Health, 21, 315–26.Google Scholar
Smith, M. S., Wallston, K. A. & Smith, C. A. (1995). The development and validation of the Perceived Health Competence Scale. Health Education Research: Theory and Practice, 10, 51–64.Google Scholar
Stein, M. J., Wallston, K. A. & Nicassio, P. M. (1988). Factor structure of the Arthritis Helplessness Index. Journal of Rheumatology, 15, 427–32.Google Scholar
Steptoe, A. & Appels, A. (Eds.). (1989). Stress, personal control, and health. Brussels, Luxembourg: Wiley.
Taylor, S. E. & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: a social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193–210.Google Scholar
Taylor, S. E. (1989). Positive illusions: creative self-deception and the healthy mind. New York: Basic Books.
Walker, J. (2001). Control and the psychology of health. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Wallston, K.A. (1989). Assessment of control in health care settings. In Steptoe, A. & Appel, A. (Eds.). Stress, personal control and health (pp. 85–105). Chicester, England: Wiley.
Wallston, K. A. (1992). Hocus-pocus, the focus isn't strictly on locus: Rotter's social learning theory modified for health. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16, 183–99.Google Scholar
Wallston, K.A. (2001a). Control beliefs. In Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (Eds.). International encyclopedia of the social and behavioural sciences. Oxford, England: Elsevier Science.
Wallston, K.A. (2001b). Conceptualization and operationalization of perceived control. In Baum, A., Revenson, T. & Singer, J. E. (Eds.). The handbook of health psychology (pp. 49–58). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Wallston, K.A. (2004). Control and health. In Anderson, N. (Ed.). Encyclopedia of health & behaviour, Vol. 1 (pp. 217–9). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wallston, K. A., Malcarne, V. L., Flores, L.et al. (1999). Does God determine your health? The God Locus of Health Control scale. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 23, 131–42.Google Scholar
Wallston, K. A., Stein, M. J. & Smith, C. A. (1994). Form C of the MHLC Scales: a condition-specific measure of locus of control. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63, 534–53.Google Scholar
Wallston, K. A., Wallston, B. S. & DeVellis, R. (1978). Development of the multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) scales. Health Education Monographs, 6, 160–70.Google Scholar
Wallston, K. A., Wallston, B. S., Smith, S. & Dobbins, C. J. (1987). Perceived control and health. Current Psychological Research and Reviews, 6, 5–25.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×