Personal control over aversive stimuli and its relationship to stress.

Reviews experimental research relating types of personal control to the experience of stress. 3 main types of personal control may be distinguished: (a) behavioral (direct action on the environment), (b) cognitive (the interpretation of events), and (c) decisional (having a choice among alternative courses of action). Each type of control is related to stress in a complex fashion, sometimes increasing it, sometimes reducing it, and sometimes having no influence at all. It may be generally said that the relationship of personal control to stress is primarily a function of the meaning of the control response for the individual, i.e., the stress-inducing or stress-reducing properties of personal control depend upon the nature of the response and the context in which it is embedded and not just upon its effectiveness in preventing or mitigating the impact of a potentially harmful stimulus. (66 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)