Control Appraisals Research Articles

Coping styles, well-being, and self-care behaviors among African Americans with type 2 diabetes.

The purpose of this study was to describe how coping styles among African Americans with type 2 diabetes relate to diabetes appraisals, self-care behaviors, and health-related quality of life or well-being. This cross-sectional analysis of baseline measures from 185 African Americans with type 2 diabetes enrolled in a church-based randomized controlled trial uses the theoretical framework of the transactional model of stress and coping to describe bivariate and multivariate associations among coping styles, psychosocial factors, self-care behaviors, and well-being, as measured by validated questionnaires. Among participants who were on average 59 years of age with 9 years of diagnosed diabetes, passive and emotive styles of coping were used most frequently, with older and less educated participants using more often passive forms of coping. Emotive styles of coping were significantly associated with greater perceived stress, problem areas in diabetes, and negative appraisals of diabetes control. Both passive and active styles of coping were associated with better diabetes self-efficacy and competence in bivariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, significant proportions of the variance in dietary behaviors and mental well-being outcomes (general and diabetes specific) were explained, with coping styles among the independent predictors. A positive role for church involvement in the psychological adaptation to living with diabetes was also observed. In this sample of older African Americans with diabetes, coping styles were important factors in diabetes appraisals, self-care behaviors, and psychological outcomes. These findings suggest potential benefits in emphasizing cognitive and behavioral strategies to promote healthy coping outcomes in persons living with diabetes.

Personal resources, appraisal, and coping in the adaptation process of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union.

Between 1989 and 2005, Israel absorbed over a million new immigrants, about 90% of whom were from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The present study investigated the adaptation of these FSU new immigrants in a sample of 301 participants (67% women, ages 25-45 years), who completed inventories measuring personal resources (tolerance of ambiguity and cognitive flexibility), cognitive appraisals (of employment, language, and housing problems), coping strategies, well-being, distress, and willingness to remain in Israel. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that tolerance for ambiguity and cognitive flexibility contributed positively to control appraisals, task-oriented coping, and level of participant well-being, and negatively to threat/loss appraisals, emotion/avoidance-oriented coping, and distress. Control appraisals contributed to task-oriented coping, whereas threat/loss appraisals contributed to both emotion/avoidance-oriented and task-oriented coping. Control and challenge appraisals, and task-oriented coping, contributed positively to participant willingness to remain in Israel, whereas emotion/avoidance-oriented coping contributed positively to distress levels, which in turn were negatively related to willingness to remain in Israel. The results of this study have significant implications for such aspects of immigrant adaptation as absorption policies and the provision of individual care by professionals and organizations.

Desire for control, sense of control and obsessive-compulsive checking: An extension to clinical samples

Research in non-clinical samples has suggested that control beliefs, specifically desire for control and sense of control, may play a role in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The present study extends a previous research design to clinical participants [Moulding, R., Kyrios, M., & Doron, G. (2007). Obsessive-compulsive behaviours in specific situations: The relative influence of appraisals of control, responsibility and threat. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 1693–1702]. In this study, clinical participants with OCD-checking symptoms ( n = 16), anxiety disorders ( n = 17) and community controls ( n = 27) were presented with four hypothetical scenarios. Using a manipulation paradigm, the relationship between control appraisals and other OCD-relevant constructs (threat, responsibility) was examined. As in the non-clinical study, desire for control was moderately affected by responsibility and threat manipulations, while sense of control was not affected by these manipulations. Individuals with OCD recorded higher desire for control and lower sense of control relative to community controls, and a higher desire for control than the anxiety group, suggesting some specificity to OCD. A possible interactive model of control, threat and responsibility is discussed.

Do prospective workday appraisals influence end-of-workday affect and self-monitored performance?

The current study uses self-regulation as the basis for a model that examines the influence of three types of workday appraisals (resource, task, and response). At the beginning of their workday, a total of 170 faculty, graduate students, and staff of a university completed appraisal ratings of their anticipated workday tasks, resources, and responses. At the end of the workday, they completed assessments of positive and negative affect and self-monitored performance. Results suggested that resource appraisals of control and skills were predictive of task appraisals of difficulty, threat, and ambiguity. Task appraisals were then predictive of both response appraisals, in terms of anticipated support and effort, and self-monitored performance at the end of the day. Anticipated effort and self-monitored performance were both positively related to positive affect at the end of the day. Anticipated support and self-monitored performance were both negatively related to negative affect at the end of the day, while threat task appraisals were positively related to negative affect. Implications of the results for workplace interventions are discussed.

Structured writing about current stressors: The benefits of developing plans

To investigate the health outcomes of structured writing about everyday stressors, 64 undergraduates selected a stressful event with which they were currently dealing, and wrote about it at home on three occasions in 1 week. Two forms of writing were manipulated: expressive writing – exploring one's thoughts and feelings about the stressor; and planful writing – developing plans to deal with the problem. Appraisals of control and efficacy were investigated as mediators. Expressive writing yielded no health benefits and did not affect appraisals, but planful writing did. Whereas non-planners' levels of negative affect (NA) remained stable across writing days, planners initially experienced higher NA, but their NA decreased significantly across writing days. Planful writers, relative to non-planners, felt less control over their emotions and less confidence in resolving their problem, but it was non-planners who experienced an increase in stress-related symptoms following writing. Appraisals did not mediate the physical health outcomes.

Coping with stress: Dispositional coping strategies of project managers

This study explores the relationship between project management practices, control appraisals and dispositional coping strategies used by project managers when dealing with stressful situations. Seventy-one project managers from a global sample participated by completing a web-based questionnaire. Results support the hypotheses that project managers apply more Active Coping and Planning strategies when dealing with stressful situations and that the level of maturity of the organisational practices is related to an increased use of Planning coping strategies. Findings and limitations are discussed.

The effects of preoperative preparation on postoperative outcomes: The moderating role of control appraisals.

To test the proposal that external health locus of control and self-efficacy would moderate the effects of a psychological preparation for surgery on outcomes for surgical heart patients. Psychological distress, pain, serum cortisol, and tumor necrosis factor alpha. A total of 80 coronary artery bypass graft patients were given standard care plus a psychological preparation or standard care alone using a single-blind methodology with random assignment. Data on psychological and biological functioning were collected at admission (baseline) and discharge. As predicted, external health locus of control and self-efficacy moderated the effect of the preparation on all outcomes. Results indicated that for high external health locus of control, the preparation was related to lower distress for people with high self-efficacy compared with those with low self-efficacy. When external health locus of control was low, the preparation was related to lower distress for those with lower self-efficacy. These findings caution against the use of preparations and education for surgical patients without accounting for control appraisals.

The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions: Assumptions, Corollaries, and Implications for Educational Research and Practice

This article describes the control-value theory of achievement emotions and its implications for educational research and practice. The theory provides an integrative framework for analyzing the antecedents and effects of emotions experienced in achievement and academic settings. It is based on the premise that appraisals of control and values are central to the arousal of achievement emotions, including activity-related emotions such as enjoyment, frustration, and boredom experienced at learning, as well as outcome emotions such as joy, hope, pride, anxiety, hopelessness, shame, and anger relating to success or failure. Corollaries of the theory pertain to the multiplicity and domain specificity of achievement emotions; to their more distal individual and social antecedents, their effects on engagement and achievement, and the reciprocal linkages between emotions, antecedents and effects; to the regulation and development of these emotions; and to their relative universality across genders and cultures. Implications addressed concern the conceptual integration of emotion, motivation, and cognition, and the need to advance mixed-method paradigms. In closing, implications for educational practice are discussed.

Obsessive-compulsive behaviours in specific situations: The relative influence of appraisals of control, responsibility and threat

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repeated and persistent attempts by the individual to control their thoughts and by taking action through rituals in order to prevent feared or personally distressing outcomes. While cognitive theories of OCD have generated supportive research findings and effective treatments, they have not considered broader control beliefs that may motivate aspects of OC-phenomenology. We have previously proposed that broader control beliefs, specifically desire for control and sense of control, may play a role in OC-symptoms (Moulding & Kyrios, 2006). In the present study, non-clinical participants ( N = 219 ) were presented with four hypothetical scenarios relevant to an OCD-checking concern, and using a manipulation paradigm, the relationship between control constructs and appraisals hypothesized to be relevant to OCD (threat, responsibility) was examined. Desire for control was moderately affected to responsibility and threat appraisals, while sense of control did not relate to these constructs. The relationship between aspects of OC-phenomenology and appraisals of control, responsibility and threat were also investigated. Higher desire for control predicted both affect and action, while a lower sense of control predicted higher distress and action, over-and-above appraisals of threat and responsibility. Control appraisals were particularly relevant to use of action, and to affect in the low responsibility situations. A possible interactive model of desire for control, threat and responsibility is discussed.

Obsessive‐compulsive disorder across developmental trajectory: Cognitive processing of threat in children, adolescents and adults

While the cognitive theory of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most widely accepted accounts of the maintenance of the disorder in adults, no study to date has systematically evaluated the theory across children, adolescence and adults with OCD. This paper investigated developmental differences in the cognitive processing of threat in a sample of children, adolescents and adults with OCD. Using an idiographic assessment approach, as well as self-report questionnaires, this study evaluated cognitive appraisals of responsibility, probability, severity, thought-action fusion (TAF), thought-suppression, self-doubt and cognitive control. It was hypothesised that there would be age related differences in reported responsibility for harm, probability of harm, severity of harm, thought suppression, TAF, self-doubt and cognitive control. Results of this study demonstrated that children with OCD reported experiencing fewer intrusive thoughts, which were less distressing and less uncontrollable than those experienced by adolescents and adults with OCD. Furthermore, responsibility attitudes, probability biases and thought suppression strategies were higher in adolescents and adults with OCD. Cognitive processes of TAF, perceived severity of harm, self-doubt and cognitive control were found to be comparable across age groups. These results suggest that the current cognitive theory of OCD needs to address developmental differences in the cognitive processing of threat. Furthermore, for a developmentally sensitive theory of OCD, further investigation is warranted into other possible age related maintenance factors. Implications of this investigation and directions for future research are discussed.

Personality and Pain-Related Beliefs/Coping Strategies: A Prospective Study

The ways in which people adjust to chronic pain has been partly attributed to pre-existing personality traits, but most evidence to date is from cross-sectional studies and mainly with arthritis groups. The present study examined the effects of 5 personality dimensions on measures of pain-related beliefs and catastrophizing assessed 9 months apart with a heterogeneous chronic pain sample. One hundred forty-five patients with chronic pain presenting to a hospital pain center completed the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised, 3 measures of pain related beliefs, the catastrophizing scale of the Coping Strategy Questionnaire, and a 0 to 10 pain scale. Nine months from the initial assessment, patients completed the same measures, apart from the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised. Of the 5 personality dimensions studied, only neuroticism was related to the pain-related variables. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses revealed that neuroticism was a significant predictor of residualized change in pain self-efficacy beliefs and pain control appraisals over the time of the study, after controlling for initial values of both constructs. However, the effects were small, suggesting that other factors play a role in the determination of such beliefs, in addition to neuroticism. In contrast, neuroticism was not a significant predictor of residualized change in catastrophizing responses over the same period. The findings provide partial support for the hypothesis that pre-existing personality traits place some patients at risk for poor adjustment to chronic pain.

Perceived health status and perceived diabetes control: psychological indicators and accuracy

Objective The aim of this study is to assess the association of psychological, as well as physical and sociodemographic, indicators with patients' ratings of personal health status and diabetes control and to investigate the association of mental health and depression with errors in the perception of diabetes control. Method A sociodemographically diverse sample of 623 diabetes patients was recruited from the general medicine clinics of a county health care system and a Veterans Affairs health care system. We examined three types of determinants of patients' health perceptions: physical health indicators (symptoms, comorbid diagnoses, and glycosylated hemoglobin or HbA 1c levels), psychological health indicators (general mental health and diabetes-related worry), and sociodemographic factors (age, race, gender, income, and education). Results After controlling for patient' sociodemographic characteristics, perceived general health was associated with patients' symptom burden and emotional distress (but not with patients' HbA 1c levels). Perceived diabetes control additionally was associated with HbA 1c and diabetes-related worries. Further analyses showed that both mental health and diagnosed depression were associated with errors in personal appraisals of diabetes control, with depressed patients more often inaccurately assessing their glycemic control as poor (false-positive error) and nondepressed patients more often missing poor HbA 1c levels (false-negative error). Conclusions Findings indicate that patients use a comprehensive model for assessing their general health and that depression may lead to more accurate assessments of poor glucose control.

Feeling and Believing: The Influence of Emotion on Trust.

The authors report results from 5 experiments that describe the influence of emotional states on trust. They found that incidental emotions significantly influence trust in unrelated settings. Happiness and gratitude--emotions with positive valence--increase trust, and anger--an emotion with negative valence--decreases trust. Specifically, they found that emotions characterized by other-person control (anger and gratitude) and weak control appraisals (happiness) influence trust significantly more than emotions characterized by personal control (pride and guilt) or situational control (sadness). These findings suggest that emotions are more likely to be misattributed when the appraisals of the emotion are consistent with the judgment task than when the appraisals of the emotion are inconsistent with the judgment task. Emotions do not influence trust when individuals are aware of the source of their emotions or when individuals are very familiar with the trustee.

Adaptation to being at-risk for Huntington's Disease and the availability of genetic testing: application of a stress and coping model

This study examined the utility of a stress/coping model in explaining adaptation in two groups of people at-risk for Huntington's Disease (HD): those who have not approached genetic testing services (non-testees) and those who have engaged a testing service (testees). The aims were (1) to compare testees and non-testees on stress/coping variables, (2) to examine relations between adjustment and the stress/coping predictors in the two groups, and (3) to examine relations between the stress/coping variables and testees' satisfaction with their first counselling session. Participants were 44 testees and 40 non-testees who completed questionnaires which measured the stress/coping variables: adjustment (global distress, depression, health anxiety, social and dyadic adjustment), genetic testing concerns, testing context (HD contact, experience, knowledge), appraisal (control, threat, self-efficacy), coping strategies (avoidance, self-blame, wishful thinking, seeking support, problem solving), social support and locus of control. Testees also completed a genetic counselling session satisfaction scale. As expected, non-testees reported lower self-efficacy and control appraisals, higher threat and passive avoidant coping than testees. Overall, results supported the hypothesis that within each group poorer adjustment would be related to higher genetic testing concerns, contact with HD, threat appraisals, passive avoidant coping and external locus of control, and lower levels of positive experiences with HD, social support, internal locus of control, self-efficacy, control appraisals, problem solving, emotional approach and seeking social support coping. Session satisfaction scores were positively correlated with dyadic adjustment, problem solving and positive experience with HD, and inversely related to testing concerns, and threat and control appraisals. Findings support the utility of the stress/coping model in explaining adaptation in people who have decided not to seek genetic testing for HD and those who have decided to engage a genetic testing service.

Appraisal-coping goodness of fit: a daily internet study.

Using an Internet daily diary methodology, this study tested the goodness of fit hypothesis, which highlights the importance of the match between controllability appraisals and coping efforts in adjustment to stressful events. For 28 days, 190 undergraduates described their most stressful event and its controllability, how they coped, and their daily positive and negative mood. Individuals demonstrated fit across situations, with control appraisals associated positively with problem-focused coping and negatively with emotional approach coping and avoidance coping. A pooled within-person interaction indicated that problem-focused coping had a stronger positive association with positive mood when dealing with high versus low control stressors. Significant variation also was found in several other within-person interactions between control appraisals and coping, and some evidence was found for the notion that individual differences in the degree of matching coping to control appraisals were associated with person-level adjustment.

Correlates of levels and patterns of positive life changes following sexual assault.

This study builds on previous work suggesting that many survivors report positive life changes soon after a sexual assault and that those who retain those changes over time report the least distress 1 year post-assault (P. Frazier, A. Conlon, & T. Glaser, 2001). The purposes of this study were to assess correlates of early reports of positive life changes and individual trajectories of self-reported positive changes over time among female sexual assault survivors (n = 171) using hierarchical linear modeling. The factors most related to reporting positive life change soon after the assault were social support, approach and religious coping, and perceived control over the recovery process. Increases in these factors also were associated with increases in self-reported positive life changes over time. The relations between social support and positive change also were mediated by coping strategies and control appraisals, particularly perceived control over the recovery process.

Roles of perceived control and coping strategies on depressive and anxiety symptoms of Turkish adolescents.

This study aimed to test the importance of the match between control appraisals and coping responses as relating to the psychological symptoms of anxiety and depression in adolescents. Besides this match, by means of a survey study the main effects of control appraisals and coping strategies were tested via hierarchical regression analyses, which were run for anxiety and depression symptoms separately. Participants were 396 students (204 girls, 192 boys) whose ages were 11 to 18 years. After controlling for potential factors such as appraisals concerning the problem features, some subject variables, and perceived general stress, results indicated an important discriminative feature among these symptoms, addressing greater use of problem-focused coping than emotion-focused coping, was associated with alleviated depression symptoms of adolescents. On the other hand, the preferring coping strategies were not related to anxiety symptoms. Importance of problem appraisals and coping responses in alleviating depression and anxiety symptoms were discussed together with their potential function in discriminating associates of these symptoms.

Investigation of the benefits of HIV/AIDS caregiving and relations among caregiving adjustment, benefit finding, and stress and coping variables

The present study explored the nature of benefit finding in HIV/AIDS caregiving, and examined relations among caregiver adjustment, benefit finding, and stress and coping variables. A total of 64 HIV/AIDS caregivers and 46 care recipients completed interviews and questionnaires. First, the study aimed to explore the types of benefits associated with HIV/AIDS caregiving. Content analyses of caregiver responses to an interview question inquiring about gains from caregiving revealed eight benefit themes. Second, the study aimed to examine relations between caregiver adjustment and both benefit finding and stress and coping variables. We hypothesized that number of caregiver reported benefits, social support, challenge and control appraisals, and problem focused coping would be inversely related to poorer adjustment, whereas care recipient reported global distress and illness, caregiver threat appraisal and passive-avoidant emotion-focused coping would be positively associated with poorer adjustment. Correlations indicated that poorer adjustment (measured by global distress, depression, caregiving impact, social adjustment and health status) was positively correlated with care-recipient distress, threat appraisals and passive avoidant coping and inversely correlated with social support, and number of reported benefits. Unexpectedly, problem-focused coping, controllability and challenge appraisals, and care recipient illness were unrelated to adjustment. Third, the study aimed to examine relations between benefit finding and stress and coping variables. Correlations indicated that benefit finding was related to social support use, seeking social support coping and problem-solving coping. Findings indicate that the benefit finding and stress/coping frameworks have utility in guiding research into adaptation to HIV/AIDS caregiving. Results also indicate targets for intervention in the provision of services for HIV/AIDS caregivers.

Are changes in fear-avoidance beliefs, catastrophizing, and appraisals of control, predictive of changes in chronic low back pain and disability?

Interventions for chronic low back pain (CLBP) often attempt to modify patients' levels of catastrophizing, their fear-avoidance beliefs, and their appraisals of control. Presumably, these interventions are based on the notion that changes in these cognitive factors are related to changes in measures of adjustment. The aim of the present study was to explore whether changes on these cognitive factors were related to changes in CLBP and disability. Fifty-four CLBP patients completed a series of self-report measures prior to beginning a cognitive-behavioral based intervention and again upon discharge. Change scores (post-treatment score minus pre-treatment score) were calculated for each of the self-report measures. The study found that changes in the cognitive factors were not significantly associated with changes in pain intensity. In contrast, reductions in fear-avoidance beliefs about work and physical activity, as well as increased perceptions of control over pain were uniquely related to reductions in disability, even after controlling for reductions in pain intensity, age and sex. The final model explained 71% of the variance in reductions in disability.

Adjustment to chronic low back pain—the relative influence of fear-avoidance beliefs, catastrophizing, and appraisals of control

The present study investigated the relative extent to which patients’ adjustment to chronic low back pain (CLBP) was influenced by their fear-avoidance beliefs, their tendency to catastrophize, and their appraisals of control. Eighty-three CLBP patients completed a series of self-report measures before participating in a physical therapist-led intervention. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that patients’ perceptions of their ability to decrease pain explained a small, but statistically significant, proportion of the variance in pain intensity. In addition, patients’ levels of catastrophizing, as well as their fear-avoidance beliefs about both work and physical activity, were independently associated with levels of disability. Interestingly, however, when exploring the relative predictive utility of these three psychological factors, it became evident that fear-avoidance beliefs about physical activity (FABs-PA) were the only significant predictor of patients’ disability. Specifically, those patients who exhibited higher levels of FABs-PA tended to report greater levels of disability, even after adjusting for age, sex and pain intensity.