Stress
At first, stress was not considered to play a part in a person’s health and/or illness. In the previous section we saw how self-efficacy can be related to a person’s locus of control, and stress also has a relationship in these areas. Self-efficacy can be something that people use to deal with the stress that they are faced with on their everyday life. Some findings suggest that external health-related locus of control combined with self-efficacy moderates illness-related psychological distress. In previous section, it was mentioned the different types of locus of control, internal and external. Based on the definition on people that have an external locus of control, we can see that this can be associated with higher levels of stress. A study conducted by Bollini and others reveals that individuals who have a high external locus of control tend to have higher levels of psychological and physical problems. These people are also more vulnerable to external influences and as a result they become more responsive to stress.
Veterans that have spinal cord injuries and post-traumatic stress are a good group to look at in regards to locus of control and stress. Aging shows to be a very important factor that can be related to the severity of the symptoms of PTSD experienced by the patients following the trauma of the war. Research suggest that patients that suffered a spinal cord injury will benefit from knowing that they have control over their health problems and they disability, which reflex the characteristics of having internal locus of control. A study made by Chung et Al. 2006 focused on how the responses of spinal cord injury post-traumatic stress will vary depending on age. The researchers tested different age groups including young adults, middle-aged and elderly; the average age was 25, 48 and 65 for each group respectively. After the study, they concluded that age does not make a difference on how spinal cord injury patients respond to the traumatic events that happened. However, they did mention that age did play a role in the extent by which the external locus of control was used, concluding that the young adults group showed to be using more external locus of control characteristics than the other age groups that they were being compared to.
Read more about this topic: Locus Of Control
Famous quotes containing the word stress:
“A society which is clamoring for choice, which is filled with many articulate groups, each urging its own brand of salvation, its own variety of economic philosophy, will give each new generation no peace until all have chosen or gone under, unable to bear the conditions of choice. The stress is in our civilization.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“It is not stressful circumstances, as such, that do harm to children. Rather, it is the quality of their interpersonal relationships and their transactions with the wider social and material environment that lead to behavioral, emotional, and physical health problems. If stress matters, it is in terms of how it influences the relationships that are important to the child.”
—Felton Earls (20th century)
“Anyone who wishes to combine domestic responsibilities and paid employment with the least stress and most enjoyment might start by pondering this paradox: the first step to better functioning is to stop blaming herself for not functioning well enough.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)