Definition
This is a central issue in behavior medicine, since it relates to models of stress and to patient behaviors and outcomes and has vast clinical implications. Patient control (PC) can reflect both subjective or perceived control and objective control. Perceived control can be understood as one’s subjective appraisal of the ability to influence the causes or outcomes of a situation. Perceived control reflects a secondary appraisal process in general stress models (Lazarus and Folkman 1984; Taylor 1995). In contrast, objective control reflects the externally determined and externally validated level of control over a situation. Thus, objective PC is accurate, while subjective PC refers to subjective levels of control and, thus, could also be inaccurate. Subjective PC is a crucial predictor of health behaviors in the theory of planned behavior, showing a relation to behavior either directly or via intentions. For example, subjective PC has been shown to be important in choice...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References and Further Readings
Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358–372.
Chiros, C., & O’Brien, W. H. (2011). Acceptance, appraisals, and coping in relation to migraine headache: An evaluation of interrelationships using daily diary methods. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 34, 307–320.
Hudcova, J., McNicol, E., Quah, C., Lau, J., & Carr, D. B. (2006). Patient controlled opioid analgesia versus conventional opioid analgesia for postoperative pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 18, CD003348.
Johnson, L. R., Magnani, B., Chan, V., & Ferrante, F. M. (1989). Modifiers of patient-controlled analgesia efficacy. I. Locus of control. Pain, 39, 17–22.
Lawrence, W., & Barker, M. (2009). A review of factors affecting the food choices of disadvantaged women. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 68, 189–194.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
Palermo-Neto, J., de Oliveira, M. C., & Robespierre de Souza, W. (2003). Effects of physical and psychological stressors on behavior, macrophage activity, and Ehrlich tumor growth. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 17, 43–54.
Taylor, S. E. (1995). Health psychology (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tovbin, D., Jean, T., Schnieder, A., Granovsky, R., & Gidron, Y. (2003). Psychosocial correlates and moderators of QOL in hemodialysis. Quality of Life Research, 12, 709–717.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Gidron, Y. (2016). Patient Control. In: Gellman, M., Turner, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_130-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_130-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine