- Strengthening Positive Psychology
- Speculation, Conceptualization, or Evidence?: A History of Positive Psychology
- Classifying and Measuring Strengths of Character
- Positive Psychology within a Cultural Context
- Stopping the “Madness”: Positive Psychology and Deconstructing the Illness Ideology and the DSM
- Widening the Diagnostic Focus: A Case for Including Human Strengths and Environmental Resources
- Better Together: The Sciences and the Humanities in the Quest for Human Flourishing
- Mental Health: Multiple Perspectives for an Evolving Concept
- Capturing the Complexity and Dynamics of Positive Human Health: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations
- Positive Psychology of Infancy and Early Childhood: Chapter in the Handbook of Positive Psychology
- Resilience in Development
- Positive Psychology for Children and Adolescents: Development, Prevention, and Promotion
- Positive Youth Development: Relational Developmental Systems Approaches to Thriving from Childhood to Early Adulthood
- Territories of Positive Life Span Development: Wisdom and <i>Sehnsucht</i> (Life Longings)
- Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and Life Satisfaction
- Happiness in Nations: Pursuit of Greater Happiness for a Greater Number of Citizens
- Positive Affectivity: The Disposition to Experience Pleasurable Emotional States
- The Social Construction of Self-Esteem
- Coping through Emotional Approach: The Utility of Processing and Expressing Emotions in Response to Stress
- Thriving on Emotional Intelligence? Bridging Research and Practice
- Creativity
- The Role of Personal Control in Adaptive Functioning
- Well-Being: Mindfulness versus Positive Evaluation
- Optimism
- Optimistic Explanatory Style
- Hope Theory
- Self-Efficacy: The Power of Believing You Can
- The Important Role of Problem Solving Appraisal in Creating a Positive Life Across Cultural Contexts
- Self-Determination
- Curiosity and Interest: The Benefits of Thriving on Novelty and Challenge
- Courage
- Compassion
- Attachment Theory as a Relational Framework for Positive Psychology
- Understanding Empathy: Current State and Future Research Challenges
- Forgiveness
- Progress in the Science of Gratitude
- Love
- Positive Processes in Close Relationships
- Intergenerational Solidarity: Dualities in the Evolution of a Paradigm
- What’s Positive About Self-Verification?
- Reality Negotiation
- Humility: A Qualitative Review
- Toward a Biology of Social Support
- New Perspectives On the Role of the Heart in Positive Emotions, Intuition, and Social Coherence
- Building Emotional Stability and Mental Capacity: The Toughness Model
- The Associations Between Positive Affect and Health: Findings and Future Directions
- Neural Connectivity of the Creative Mind
- Neural and Physiological Mechanisms of Altruism and Empathy
- Family-Centered Positive Psychology: A Framework for Research-based Practices
- School as a Positive Learning and Working Environment
- Positive Psychology on Campus
- Positive Workplaces
- Positive Institutions: Organizations, Laws, and Policies
- Psychotherapy, Counseling, and Coaching: Different Alternatives for Promoting Psychological Well-Being
- Meditation and Positive Psychology
- Spirituality: The Search for the Sacred
- Personal Narratives, Expressive Writing and Wellbeing
- Benefit-Finding
- Pathways to Growth Following Trauma and Loss
- Happiness and Resilience Following Physical Disability
- The Promise of Fostering Greater Happiness
- Meaning in Life: A Unified Model
Abstract and Keywords
A sense of personal control helps people maintain emotional stability and negotiate their way through life. People foster this by focusing on reachable goals, creating new avenues for control, and accepting difficult-to-change circumstances. Perceived control need not be realistic in order to have beneficial effects. Research suggests that those from more collectivist cultures may derive less benefit from a sense of personal control, relying instead on a socially derived sense of control. Interventions to enhance personal control include programs that bolster coping skills, give options to participants, encourage attributions to controllable factors, and focus on empowerment. Future research should include longitudinal studies that examine disconfirmations of control and the value of maintaining vs. relinquishing control following a traumatic event. More attention is also needed on cultural differences in perceived control, the effects of illusory control on health-promotion behaviors, and interventions to increase perceived control in everyday life.
Keywords: personal control, adaptive functioning, perceived control, individual differences, ethnic group differences
Suzanne C. Thompson, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Pomona College
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- Strengthening Positive Psychology
- Speculation, Conceptualization, or Evidence?: A History of Positive Psychology
- Classifying and Measuring Strengths of Character
- Positive Psychology within a Cultural Context
- Stopping the “Madness”: Positive Psychology and Deconstructing the Illness Ideology and the DSM
- Widening the Diagnostic Focus: A Case for Including Human Strengths and Environmental Resources
- Better Together: The Sciences and the Humanities in the Quest for Human Flourishing
- Mental Health: Multiple Perspectives for an Evolving Concept
- Capturing the Complexity and Dynamics of Positive Human Health: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations
- Positive Psychology of Infancy and Early Childhood: Chapter in the Handbook of Positive Psychology
- Resilience in Development
- Positive Psychology for Children and Adolescents: Development, Prevention, and Promotion
- Positive Youth Development: Relational Developmental Systems Approaches to Thriving from Childhood to Early Adulthood
- Territories of Positive Life Span Development: Wisdom and <i>Sehnsucht</i> (Life Longings)
- Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and Life Satisfaction
- Happiness in Nations: Pursuit of Greater Happiness for a Greater Number of Citizens
- Positive Affectivity: The Disposition to Experience Pleasurable Emotional States
- The Social Construction of Self-Esteem
- Coping through Emotional Approach: The Utility of Processing and Expressing Emotions in Response to Stress
- Thriving on Emotional Intelligence? Bridging Research and Practice
- Creativity
- The Role of Personal Control in Adaptive Functioning
- Well-Being: Mindfulness versus Positive Evaluation
- Optimism
- Optimistic Explanatory Style
- Hope Theory
- Self-Efficacy: The Power of Believing You Can
- The Important Role of Problem Solving Appraisal in Creating a Positive Life Across Cultural Contexts
- Self-Determination
- Curiosity and Interest: The Benefits of Thriving on Novelty and Challenge
- Courage
- Compassion
- Attachment Theory as a Relational Framework for Positive Psychology
- Understanding Empathy: Current State and Future Research Challenges
- Forgiveness
- Progress in the Science of Gratitude
- Love
- Positive Processes in Close Relationships
- Intergenerational Solidarity: Dualities in the Evolution of a Paradigm
- What’s Positive About Self-Verification?
- Reality Negotiation
- Humility: A Qualitative Review
- Toward a Biology of Social Support
- New Perspectives On the Role of the Heart in Positive Emotions, Intuition, and Social Coherence
- Building Emotional Stability and Mental Capacity: The Toughness Model
- The Associations Between Positive Affect and Health: Findings and Future Directions
- Neural Connectivity of the Creative Mind
- Neural and Physiological Mechanisms of Altruism and Empathy
- Family-Centered Positive Psychology: A Framework for Research-based Practices
- School as a Positive Learning and Working Environment
- Positive Psychology on Campus
- Positive Workplaces
- Positive Institutions: Organizations, Laws, and Policies
- Psychotherapy, Counseling, and Coaching: Different Alternatives for Promoting Psychological Well-Being
- Meditation and Positive Psychology
- Spirituality: The Search for the Sacred
- Personal Narratives, Expressive Writing and Wellbeing
- Benefit-Finding
- Pathways to Growth Following Trauma and Loss
- Happiness and Resilience Following Physical Disability
- The Promise of Fostering Greater Happiness
- Meaning in Life: A Unified Model