Personal control: behavior and cognitive control

Based on: Sarafino, Smith. “Health psychology” Biopsychosocial interactions, Wiley, 2022. pp. 89, 90

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Transcript:
Hey today we will talk about personal control and how it modifies stress. People generally like the feeling of having some control over the things that happen to them, and they strive for a sense of personal
control. So personal control is the feeling that you can make decisions and
take effective action to produce desirable outcomes and
avoid undesirable ones. People who have a strong sense of personal control, report that they experience less strain from stressors. We will talk about two types of personal control in this video: behavior control and cognitive control. Behavioral control involves the ability to take concrete action to reduce the impact of a stressor. For example, let's take a pregnant woman who has taken childbirth classes, she can use breathing techniques during delivery to reduce the pain.
Cognitive control is the ability to use thought processes or strategies to modify the impact of a stressor. Going back to our pregnant lady, she could for example think about the pleasant day she had at the beach while giving birth or think about positive things the baby will bring to her life. Cognitive control appears to be especially effective in reducing stress.