Individual response under pressure has always been one of the focuses of research in the field of psychology. In contemporary society, people face various stress sources, from excessive workload to social comparison. It can be said that people's lives are basically composed of various stresses.
However, some stressors seem to have such a small impact on the individual that the individual does not feel it, while some stressors pose huge threats and challenges to the individual's body and mind.
At the same time, different individuals may have different cognitions and behaviors when facing the same stressors, and the same individuals may also have different cognitions and behaviors when facing different stressors.
These different cognitions and behaviors before stress are likely to lead to differences in individual stress response results. Individual personality characteristics and cognition and coping under stress may have an impact on stress response and coping results, and good coping styles may also help individuals obtain ideal coping results.
Therefore, in-depth study of individual stress coping mechanisms can help individuals choose appropriate coping methods when facing stress, and appropriate coping methods can promote individual physical and mental health. Based on previous theories and research on stress coping, the
study examined the relationship between the four variables of psychological locus of control, cognitive evaluation, coping style, and coping effectiveness, and proposed the following research hypothesis:
(1) From a general, long-term, and generalized perspective, psychological locus of control can It can significantly predict coping effectiveness, and coping style has a mediating effect between the two;
(2) In specific stressful situations, psychological locus of control can significantly predict cognitive evaluation, which then affects coping style and ultimately affects coping effectiveness. The four variables of psychological locus of control, cognitive evaluation, coping style and coping effectiveness constitute a multiple mediation model.
Psychological Locus of Control and Coping Effectiveness
Social Learning Theory is one of the theoretical foundations of psychological locus of control. Rotter proposed the expected value model, which means that the possibility of an individual engaging in a certain behavior is a function of the person's expectation and reinforcement value that this behavior will lead to a specific result. Therefore, an individual's behavior is influenced by the individual's expectations and reinforcement value.
When reinforcement values and expectations are constantly repeated and verified, an individual's relatively stable behavior pattern in response to external stimuli is formed. Rotter uses "generalized expectations" to describe individuals' relatively fixed expectations for general behavioral outcomes.
Individuals with external control expect external factors to have a greater impact on the outcome of things, while people with internal control believe that their actions can have a greater impact on the outcome of things.
Therefore, when encountering external stimuli, the behavioral reactions of people with external control and internal control are different. Internal control people are more inclined to play their own role and influence the results. Therefore, people with internal control are more active in dealing with stressful events and use behavior to change the results, while people with external control are the opposite.
Therefore, internal controllers work harder, and the subsequent response results, that is, the response effectiveness is often better. The results of the study concluded that people with more external locus of control have poorer coping effectiveness. Moreover, the study uses subjective well-being as an indicator of coping effectiveness. It can also be understood that the more externally controlled people are, the worse their subjective well-being is.
If an individual’s beliefs or environment make the individual believe that they have the ability to control themselves, they will be more free to solve the stress in life by changing the environment. If the work environment is too stressful, the individual will work hard to change the work environment, so that external stressors will have less negative impact on the individual, which will also affect the individual’s subjective well-being.
The mediating role of coping styles
According to the coping theory proposed by Lazarus and Folkman, psychological locus of control (external control) is an antecedent variable of coping styles, and affects the results of coping effectiveness by affecting coping styles. An individual's expectations of events will affect the individual's efforts and thus the effectiveness of the individual's coping. The findings of the
study empirically support its coping theory.If an individual believes that the stressful situation he or she faces is controllable, then the individual will tend to solve the problem. On the contrary, if the individual believes that the stressful situation is uncontrollable, he or she will have more emotional reactions.
Internal control is an individual’s positive and optimistic expectations for general events. Therefore, people with internal control regard stressful situations as more controllable, and tend to solve problems and make more positive efforts to solve them.
These positive efforts often stem from an individual's positive attitude and ability, which can reduce the negative impact of stress on an individual's subjective well-being. From the perspective of positive psychology, if an individual has a positive view of himself or the environment, the person is generally optimistic, which helps to improve the individual's subjective well-being. When
studied the stress response of nursing staff, it was found that coping style can partially mediate the impact of psychological locus of control on subjective well-being. However, the study found that coping style played a complete mediating role between psychological locus of control and subjective well-being. This may be due to the different stress states of the studied populations.
From a long-term perspective, the relationship between psychological locus of control, coping style and coping effectiveness
Study 1 found through a questionnaire survey that psychological locus of control (external control) can significantly negatively predict coping effectiveness, that is, individuals who believe that they have control over general things have a higher subjective well-being.
Coping style plays a complete mediating role in the relationship between the two. That is, the more individuals believe that they can control stressful events in life, the better they can cope with various stresses in life, and thus the individual's subjective well-being will be better.
Individuals with more internal control have more mature coping methods. When faced with pressure, they tend to solve problems and seek help from others. On the contrary, individuals with more external control have less mature coping methods. When faced with pressure, they tend to choose self-blame, avoidance, fantasy, rationalization and other coping methods. Different coping styles directly lead to differences in individual coping effectiveness.
In a study of Pakistani students, it was concluded that coping style is a mediating variable for stress, ill health, academic performance, etc. This study chose subjective well-being as a measure of coping effectiveness.
This study by Bhatti & Rasli can just add that in coping effectiveness measured by other indicators, such as physical health, coping style also plays a mediating role in its relationship with psychological locus of control (external control).
However, due to differences in measurement tools, measures of coping effectiveness, and research objects, the mediating role played by coping styles is different.
In the literature that also chooses individual subjective well-being as a measure of coping effectiveness, for example, in the study of the psychological status of women who have had miscarriages, it was found that less use of avoidant coping styles can predict higher levels of mental health after miscarriage.
Under specific pressure, the relationship between psychological locus of control, cognitive evaluation, coping style and coping effectiveness
Study 2 selected the National College English Band 4 Test as a specific stressful situation to explore how individuals with different psychological locus of control (external control) evaluate stress, choose coping methods and the final effectiveness of coping in this stressful situation. According to the data analysis results, different coping effectiveness indicators are selected, and the relationships between variables are different.
Mature coping styles play a mediating role between the psychological locus of control (external control) and the indicator of problem-solving, that is, test scores. Immature coping styles play a mediating role between the psychological locus of control (external control) and the indicator of coping effectiveness and psychological pain, that is, test anxiety.
The effect estimates of the mediating path of psychological locus of control (external control) on coping effectiveness are all negative, that is, the higher the external control, the lower the coping effectiveness, and the direct effect of psychological locus of control (external control) on coping effectiveness is not significant.
The psychological locus of control (external control) has a negative predictive effect on coping effectiveness, and the direct effect is not significant. However, the difference is that in Study 1, both mature coping and immature coping can significantly predict coping effectiveness.
Different measures of coping effectiveness yield different prediction results, that is, both mature coping and immature coping can and can only predict coping effectiveness or coping effectiveness.
The emergence of this result is not only due to different measurement indicators, which will lead to different relationships between coping and coping effectiveness, but also because the starting angles of the two studies are different. In Study 1, from a long-term perspective, the coping style was regarded as an individual's relatively stable tendency to study the relationship between the three variables, and the conclusion reached was also from a long-term perspective.
In Study 2, the relationship between coping styles affected by situational factors and other variables was examined in specific stressful situations. It was concluded that in the stressful situation of the National College English Test Band 4, external control affects the individual's cognitive evaluation of the stressful situation, which in turn affects the individual's behavior and final results under this pressure.
And immature coping styles cannot significantly predict test scores, and mature coping styles cannot significantly predict test anxiety. Therefore, the results of Study 1 and Study 2 not only do not conflict, but the two studies study individual coping from different perspectives of part and whole, complementing each other. This is the advantage of the coping process-trait theory.
Overall, from the results of Study 2, it can be seen that individuals with lower levels of external control, because their expectations of common things are the results of things they can control.
Therefore, when encountering specific stress, their expectations for common things will affect their evaluation of stressful events, and they will be more inclined to evaluate things as threats rather than challenges.
This kind of assessment affects an individual's cognition and behavior under pressure. Therefore, individuals with low levels of external control are more likely to choose mature coping methods such as solving problems and asking for help from others, which in turn leads to a higher degree of problem solving.
The higher the degree of external control, the more likely individuals are to choose immature coping methods such as self-blame, avoidance, fantasy, rationalization, etc., which leads to unresolved problems.
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