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Perceived Control and Psychological Adjustment in Gay Men With AIDS 1
Author(s) -
Reed Geoffrey M.,
Taylor Shelley E.,
Kemeny Margaret E.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1993.tb01007.x
Subject(s) - psychology , locus of control , negative affectivity , clinical psychology , multicenter aids cohort study , perceived control , competence (human resources) , social psychology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , personality , medicine , family medicine , sida , viral disease
The relationship of control beliefs to psychological adjustment was investigated in a sample of 24 gay men diagnosed with AIDS, participants in the University of California, Los Angeles site of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). Distinctions between generalized contingency beliefs and specific competence beliefs and between personal and vicarious control beliefs were included in the questionnaire and interview measures administered. The results support these distinctions and indicate that beliefs in personal control over day‐to‐day symptoms and over course of illness were positively related to adjustment, whereas beliefs in control by others over course of illness and over medical care and treatment were negatively related to adjustment. These relationships appeared to be strongest for men who reported poorer health. These associations were not accounted for by locus of control beliefs, negative affectivity, or time since diagnosis with AIDS.