Journal of Social Issues

Thompson, Suzanne C.; Spacapan, Shirlynn

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01831.xpmid: N/A

A lack of control is a critical social issue when it is experienced by individuals who already have little opportunity to exercise control; thus, this journal issue brings together research on a number of vulnerable populations: children, medical patients, lower level employees, and the elderly. Because of the diverse populations to which this concept has been applied, the perceived control literature is diffuse and fragmented. This article covers the positive outcomes associated with a sense of control—emotional well‐being, successful coping with stress, good health, desired behavior changes, and improved performance. It also identifies common themes that cut across work in this area—the conceptualization and measurement of control, threats to control, conditions that determine the effects of control, and interventions to enhance control. Finally, it suggests how this work may be applied to enhance the well‐being of other vulnerable segments of our society.

Compas, Bruce E.; Banez, Gerard A.; Malcarne, Vanessa; Worsham, Nancy

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01832.xpmid: N/A

This article discusses developmental changes in perceptions of control, the relationship between perceived control and strategies used by children to cope with stress, and the interaction between perceived control and coping in their association with psychological adjustment and disorder. Developmental research on children's perceptions of control has identified both changes and consistencies in contingency, competence, and control beliefs during childhood and early adolescence. Developmental changes in coping have also been documented, with problem‐focused skills emerging during childhood, and more rapid development of emotion‐focused coping skills during later childhood and early adolescence. Studies have shown that perceptions of control are related to the ways that children and adolescents cope with stress. The implications of this research for interventions aimed at enhancing children's problem‐solving and coping skills are discussed.

Boggiano, Ann K.; Katz, Phyllis

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01833.xpmid: N/A

Guided by a theoretical model of academic achievement, the studies described here employed a multimethod approach to explore the interplay of factors that lead some children to strive harder in the face of failure and others to exhibit a maladaptive “helpless” response pattern. Converging evidence from laboratory and field research demonstrates that children with extrinsic motivational styles are more susceptible to helpless behavior, particularly when adults teach by use of controlling strategies (e.g., rewards, exhortations, evaluative cues). Autonomy‐inducing techniques that focus the child more upon intrinsic aspects of the task, however, elicit better performance, more persistence, and greater preference for challenge. Nevertheless, parents and teachers paradoxically believe controlling strategies are more effective. The implications of this disparity between empirical findings and adult beliefs are discussed.

Eccles, Jacquelynne S.; Buchanan, Christy Miller; Flanagan, Constance; Fuligni, Andrew; Midgley, Carol; Yee, Doris

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01834.xpmid: N/A

Research and theorizing about adult control have often made seemingly conflicting recommendations and predictions about the potential impact of that control on children's social and intellectual development. Researchers concerned with intrinsic motivation have argued for minimal use of controlling strategies with children; other researchers, in contrast, argue that relatively high levels of adult control, when exercised in an emotionally supportive relationship, produce the best developmental consequences. Optimal levels of control undoubtedly change as children grow older. Person‐environment fit theory suggests that the match between the child's need for autonomy and the amount of adult control exercised is critically important. This article puts this theory into a developmental framework, and suggests that parents and teachers need to modulate their levels of control based on the developmental stage of the child. Optimal developmental outcomes ought to result from an environment that gradually reduces adult control as the child's desire for autonomy increases. Evidence from the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions is presented to support this hypothesis.

Kaplan, Robert M.

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01835.xpmid: 11659600

Several studies suggest that patients want control and will seek to make choices that maximize their health outcomes. This paper describes a General Health Policy Model that can help patients exercise control by participating in choices related to their care. The model expresses health outcome as a combination of mortality and morbidity and can be used to explain circumstances in which patients appear to act irrationally—e.g., nonadherence to a prescribed medical regimen, overuse of medical interventions, signing living wills, and preference for unconventional treatments. Directly incorporating patient preferences into treatment decisions can enhance the patient's sense of autonomy while achieving comparable health outcomes and reducing health care costs. Policy models that incorporate patient choice (in comparison to more traditional models) may result in a different allocation of our scarce health care resources.

Taylor, Shelley E.; Helgeson, Vicki S.; Reed, Geoffrey M.; Skokan, Laurie A.

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01836.xpmid: N/A

Patients with chronic or advancing disease often generate perceptions that they or others can control aspects of their illness such as its symptoms, course, and treatment. This article considers self‐generated feelings of control, and provides evidence from patients with cardiac disease, cancer, and AIDS concerning the adaptiveness of these feelings. The research suggests that beliefs in personal control generally appear to be adaptive. Perceptions of control do not appear to be explained by the absence of negative affectivity, and instead, appear to reduce anxiety and depression. Cognitions concerning control by others yield more mixed results. Whereas women and patients with good prognoses appear to profit psychologically from feelings of vicarious control, men and patients with poor prognoses do not. Implications for the literatures on psychological control, the illusion of control, and adjustment to chronic illness are discussed.

Greenberger, David B.; Porter, Gayle; Miceli, Marcia P.; Strasser, Stephen

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01837.xpmid: N/A

Traditional managerial attempts to maintain control over subordinates may cause the subordinates to behave in ways to enhance or regain their control. In the present research, organization members were hypothesized to have characteristic ways of enhancing their control that, in turn, were expected to influence the likelihood that they would engage in certain behavioral responses. Using samples of students and persons employed in a variety of organizations, eight predispositions were identified, reflecting individuals' tendencies to employ different control‐enhancing strategies at work, and these predispositions were found to predict different behavioral responses. Future research directions and implications for management practice are discussed.

Remondet, Jacqueline H.; Hansson, Robert O.

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01838.xpmid: N/A

This study investigated those aspects of the work experience of middle‐aged and preretirement‐aged adults in which personal control is most likely to be threatened, and it identified related problems in performance, job satisfaction, and adjustment. Four dimensions of work experience emerged as sources of threat to personal control: Workload Demands, Limited Growth Opportunity, Personal/Family Crises, and Working Conditions. Diminished control in these areas was associated with increased job stress, generalized stress, depression, injuries on the job, and absenteeism, as well as with decreased job involvement, lower job satisfaction, and disrupted performance. In contrast to popular stereotypes, older workers actually exhibited fewer control concerns and less job stress, and greater job involvement and job satisfaction. Work‐specific control problems were related to generalized control beliefs only among the younger age group.

Reich, John W.; Zautra, Alex J.

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01839.xpmid: N/A

Perceived control and similar concepts are of central importance in studies of coping, adjustment, and well‐being; research suggests that these concepts might be usefully considered in a transactional, person‐environment framework. The studies reported here assessed internal‐external control and personal mastery in samples of at‐risk older adults coping with the major life stressors of recent physical disability or conjugal bereavement. These studies assessed the latent factor structure of control perceptions, and examined the role that dependency on other people and social networks plays in internal beliefs. The findings indicated that belief in one's ability to control the events of one's life is influenced by the life events one is experiencing, and that people who do not endorse internality beliefs (“low internals”) show significant positive mental health gains from dependency and reliance on other people. The social policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Lachman, Margie E.

doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01840.xpmid: N/A

Age differences in control beliefs were examined for several domains, including intellectual aging and memory, with a sample of 200 adults (ages 20–89). There were no age differences in control beliefs for the interpersonal or political domains. For the domains of health and intellectual aging, however, the older adults had lower internal control and higher external control beliefs than young and middle‐aged adults. The implications of these control beliefs are considered in the context of memory aging and memory training programs. A program of research is described that involves teaching older adults memory strategies in conjunction with cognitive restructuring of beliefs about the controllability of memory. The goal of the program is to optimize memory performance and attitudes about memory, as well as to identify some of the self‐appraisal and motivational mechanisms involved in memory aging.