Low Personal Control Research Articles

The relative effects of unemployment and quality of employment on the affect, work values and personal control of adolescents

This study examined the relative effects of unemployment and quality of employment on the affective states, personal control and work values of school‐leavers. Initially, students were surveyed at school and then reassessed two years later when they were either unemployed, employed or continuing their education. Those in employment were categorized as being in good or poor employment on the basis of the degree to which their jobs allowed them to utilize their skills and education. When school‐leavers who obtained good quality employment were compared with those who were unemployed, they had lower depressive affect, higher life‐satisfaction, higher internal control and higher personal competence. However, there was little difference on these variables between the unemployed and the poor employment groups. Both of these groups, when compared with students and those in good employment, had higher depressive affect, lower work values and lower personal control. All of these results were confirmed when analyses controlled for testing effects and initial differences on the dependent variables. These results show that the relative effects of employment and unemployment upon adolescents depend on the quality of experienced employment.

Personal control and health promotion

Personal control is an individual's belief about the degree that he or she can bring about good events and avoid bad events. High personal control is associated with intellectual, emotional, behavioral, and physiological vigor in the face of challenging situations and events; low personal control is associated with maladaptive passivity and poor morale. In this paper, we sketch the roots of the personal control concept and propose a composite theory of personal control. Then we apply this composite theory to health promotion, a field defined by a cluster of techniques without a unifying theory. We believe that the personal control concept can be the cornerstone for a theory of health promotion.

Expectancy of personal control and seeking social support in coping style.

Sandler and Lakey (1982) suggested that compared to external scorers internal locus of control subjects are better able to cope with stress because they use the social support they receive more effectively. The present study examined a number of potential locus of control differences in coping styles to determine whether subjects with high expectancies of personal control report seeking significantly more social support in coping than subjects with low expectancies of personal control. Results indicate a significantly greater initiation of contact with others during periods of distress for subjects with high as opposed to low personal control.

What Was That Sermon about? Predicting Memory for Religious Messages from Cognitive Psychology Theory

Drawing from cognitive psychology theory, it was predicted that memory for religious messages would increase as a function of several variables: verbal ability, interest in the message, religiosity, and the consistency of the message with the religious beliefs of the subject. Three hundred fiftythree college students listened to one of three religious messages structurally similar, but thematically different: High God Control-Low Personal Control, High God Control-High Personal Control, and Low God Control-High Personal Control. They then completed several memory measures and other scales. Only modest amounts of information were retained from the messages. The predictions of the study were generally confirmed for the messages more familiar and acceptable to the subjects. Subjects also distorted the content of the message to fit more closely with their religious beliefs. These results support the study of religious material from a cognitive psychology perspective.