Applications of Perceived Control to Cancer

A sense of personal control is associated with a variety of positive outcomes for those who are living with a chronic illness. The authors discuss the background and measurement of perceived control so that the construct can be used more easily in studies of coping with the experience of having cancer. They review four theoretical approaches that explain the role of perceived control and two current theoretical issues: (1) the situations in which control is and is not adaptive and (2) the origins of perceived control. The section on the measurement of perceptions of control reviews some widely used scales and discusses issues of current methodological importance: multidimensionality. primary versus secondary control, and central versus consequence-related control. Finally, the authors present a model for clinical applications of perceived control.