Sense of control buffers against stress

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Mental Health

Background:

• Stress is a major contributor to mental ill health throughout life.
• Perceived control significantly influences individual stress responses.
• The protective effects of heightened control against stress are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal role of subjective control in mitigating stress.
• To develop and validate a novel method for inducing subjective control states.
• To examine the association between sense of control and mental ill health symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel paradigm to capture and induce subjective control states.
• Conducted two studies with 768 adults from a non-clinical sample.
• Utilized a subsample of 295 participants to test the causal buffering effect.

Main Results:

• A strong association was found between sense of control, stress, and mental ill health.
• Inducing a heightened sense of control causally buffered participants against later stress.
• A neutral control group did not show the same stress-buffering effect.

Conclusions:

• Heightened subjective control plays a causal role in reducing the negative impact of stress.
• Findings support the development of interventions targeting subjective control for mental health.
• Future research should explore the mechanisms underlying this protective effect.