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The Impact of Communal‐Mastery Versus Self‐Mastery on Emotional Outcomes During Stressful Conditions: A Prospective Study of Native American Women
Author(s) -
Hobfoll Stevan E.,
Jackson Anita,
Hobfoll Ivonne,
Pierce Charles A.,
Young Sara
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1023/a:1020209220214
Subject(s) - psychology , anger , health psychology , mood , social psychology , collectivism , developmental psychology , mastery learning , self efficacy , sense of community , well being , public health , individualism , psychotherapist , medicine , pedagogy , nursing , political science , law
Past research has examined the stress resiliency of individuals high in sense of personal‐mastery. However, it has been theorized that within more collectivist cultures, a sense of shared efficacy, which we call communal‐mastery, may be more central to people's resiliency in the face of challenging life circumstances. We compared the impact of sense of self‐mastery (i.e., “I am the key to my success”) to that of communal‐mastery (i.e., “I am successful by virtue of my social attachments”) in a prospective study among a group of rural 103 Native American women residing on Indian Reservations in Montana. We found that women high in communal‐mastery experienced less increase in depressive mood and anger, especially when faced with high stress circumstances, than women who were low in communal‐mastery. In addition, the beneficial impact of communal‐mastery was found to be more effective than self‐mastery for these women.