Abstract
The primary purpose of the present study was to increase our understanding of the roles of chronicity and controllability in the measurement of stress within the context of stress-illness relationships. Controllability and chronicity were assessed directly using a modified version of the Everyday Problems Scale. In addition to this scale, measures of depression, psychosomatic symptoms, and social support were administered to 128 women and 100 men. The results indicated that, for both men and women, the number of stressors was the best single predictor of symptoms. However, for women, chronicity and controllability of the stressors accounted for a significant amount of the variance in health outcomes over and above that accounted for by the number of stressors endorsed; for men, the addition of neither chronicity nor controllability consistently increased the strength of the association. While available social support was not found to influence the stress-illness relationships, greater willingness to utilize social support was associated with lower levels of depression.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akiskal, H. S. (1979). A biochemical approach to depression. In Depue, R. A. (ed.),The Psychology of the Depressive Disorders: Implications for the Effects of Stress, Academic Press, New York.
Anisman, H., Suissa, A., and Sklar, L. S. (1980). Escape deficits induced by uncontrollable stress: Antagonism by dopamine and norepinephrine agonists.Behav. Neural Biol. 28: 34–37.
Banks, J., and Gannon, L. R. (1988). The influence of hardiness on the relationship between stressors and psychosomatic symptomatology.Am. J. Commun. Psychol. 16: 25–37.
Barnes, R. F., Raskind, M., Gumbrecht, G., and Halter, J. B. (1982). The effects of age on the plasma catecholamine response to mental stress in man.J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 54: 64–69.
Beck, A. T. (1967).Depression: Clinical, Experimental, and Theoretical Aspects, Harper and Row, New York.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Medelson, M., Mock, J., and Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression.Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 4: 53–63.
Brehm, J. W. (1966).A Theory of Psychological Reactance, Academic Press, New York.
Brown, L., Rosellini, R. A., Samuels, O. B., and Riley, E. P. (1982). Evidence for a seroteonergic mechanism of the learned helplessness phenomenon.Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav. 17: 877–883.
Burks, N., and Martin, B. (1985). Everyday problems and life change events: Ongoing versus acute sources of stress.J. Hum. Stress 11: 27–35.
Cobb, S. (1976). Social support as a moderator of life stress.Psychosom. Med. 38: 300–314.
Cohen, S., and Edwards, J. R. (1986). Personality characteristics as moderators of the relationship between stress and disorder. In Neufeld, R. W. J. (ed.),Advances in the Investigation of Psychological Stress, Wiley, New York.
Cohen, S., and Willis, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis.Psychol. Bull. 98: 310–357.
Cunningham, A. J. (1981). Mind, body and immune response. In Ader, R. (ed.),Psychoneuroimmunology, Academic Press, New York, pp. 609–617.
Derogatis, L. R., Lipman, R. S., Rickels, K., Uhlenhuth, E. H., and Covi, L. (1974). The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A self-report symptom inventory.Behav. Sci. 19: 1–15.
Dimsdale, J. E., and Moss, J. (1980). Short-term catecholamine response to psychological stress.Psychosom. Med. 42: 493–497.
Dohrenwend, B. S., and Martin, J. L. (1979). Personal versus situational determination of anticipation and control of the occurrence of stressful life events.Am. J. Commun. Psychol. 7: 453–468.
Feldman, J., and Brown, G. M. (1976). Endocrine responses to electric shock and avoidance conditioning in the rhesus monkey: Cortisol and growth hormone.Psychoneuroendocrinology 1: 231–242.
Frankenhaeuser, M. (1976). The role of peripheral catecholamines in adaptation to understimulation and overstimulation. In Serban, G. (ed.),Psychopathology of Human Adaptation, Plenum, New York.
Gannon, L., Heiser, P., and Knight, S. (1985). Learned helplessness versus reactance: The effects of sex-role stereotypy.Sex Roles 12: 791–806.
Glass, D. C. (1977).Behavior Patterns, Stress and Coronary Disease, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.
Hammen, C. L. (1982). Gender and depression. In Alissa, I. (ed.),Gender and Psychopathology, Academic Press, New York.
Holmes, T. H., and Masuda, M. (1974). Life change and illness susceptibility. In B. S. Dohrenwend, B. S., and Dohrenwend, B. P. (eds.),Stressful Life Events: Their Nature and Effects, Wiley, New York, pp. 45–72.
Johnson, E. A. (1986).Learned Helplessness, Stress-Induced Analgesia, and the Immune Response, Unpublished dissertation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Kessler, R. C., and McLeod, J. D. (1984). Sex differences in vulnerability to undersirable life events.Am. Social. Rev. 49: 620–631.
Kobasa, C., Maddi, S. R., and Courington, S. (1981). Personality and constitution as mediators in the stress-illness relationship.J. Health Soc. Psychol. 42: 368–378.
Lazarus, R. S. (1984). Puzzles in the study of daily hassles.J. Behav. Med. 7: 375–389.
Lefcourt, H. M. (1976).Locus of Control: Current Trends on Theory and Research, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York.
Lefcourt, H. M., Miller, R. S., Ware, E. E., and Sherk, D. (1981). Locus of control as a modifier of the relationship between stressors and moods.J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 41: 357–369.
Maier, S. F., Sherman, J. E., Lewis, J. W., Terman, G. W., and Liebeskind, J. C. (1983). The opioid/nonopioid nature of stress-induce analgesia and learned helplessness.J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 9: 80–90.
Metcalfe, M., and Goldman, E. (1965). Validation of an inventory for measuring depression.Br. J. Psychiat. 111: 240–242.
Paykel, E. S. (1974). Recent life events and clinical depression. In Gunderson, E. K., and Rahe, R. H. (ed.),Life Stress and Illness, Charles C Thomas, Springfield, IL.
Rahe, R. H., and Arthure, R. J. (1978). Life change and illness studies: Past history and future directions.J. Hum. Stress 4: 3–15.
Roth, D. L., and Holmes, D. S. (1985). Influence of physical fitness in determining the impact of stressful life events on physical and psychological health.Psychom. Med. 47: 164–173.
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975).Helplessness, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
Sklar, L. S., and Anisman, H. (1979). Stress and coping factors influence tumor growth.Science 205: 513–515.
Spring, B., and Coons, H. (1982). Stress as a precursor to schizophrenic episodes. In Neufeld, R. (ed.),Psychological Stress and Psychopathology, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Uhlenhuth, E. H., Lipman, R. S., Balter, M. B., and Stern, M. (1974). Symptom intensity and life stress in the city.Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 128: 119–123.
Vaux, A. (1985a). Variations in social support associated with gender, ethnicity, and age.J. Soc. Issues 41: 89–110.
Vaux, A. (1985b). Factor structure of the network orientation scale.Psychol. Rep. 57: 1181–1182.
Vaux, A., Burda, P., and Stewart, D. (1986). Orientation toward utilization of support resources.J. Commun. Psychol. 14: 159–170.
Vaux, A., Riedel, S., and Stewart, D. (1987). Modes of social support: The Social Support Behaviors (SS-B) Scale.Am. J. Commun. Psychol. 15: 209–237.
Verbrugge, L. M. (1985). Gender and health: An update on hypotheses and evidence.J. Health Soc. Behav. 26: 156–182.
Visintainer, M. A., Volpicelli, J. R., and Seligman, M. E. P. (1982). Tumor reflection in rats after inescapable or escapable shock.Science 216: 437–439.
Weidner, G., and Mathews, K. A. (1978). Reported physical symptoms elicited by unpredictable events and the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern.J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 36: 1213–1220.
Weiner, H., Hofer, M. A., and Stunkard, A. J. (eds.) (1981).Brain, Behavior, and Bodily Disease, Raven Press, New York.
Weiss, J. M., Glazer, H. I., Pohorecky, La., Bailey, W. H., and Schneider, L. H. (1979). Coping behavior and stress-induced behavioral depression: Studies of the role of brain catecholamines. In Depue, R. A. (ed.),The Psychobiology of the Depressive Disorders: Implication for the Effects of Stress, Academic Press, New York.
Weissman, M., and Klerman, G. L. (1977). Sex differences and the epidemiology of depression.Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 34: 98–111.
Wortman, C. B., and Brehm, J. W. (1975). Responses to uncontrollable outcomes: An integration of reactance theory and the learned helplessness model. In Berkowitz, L. (ed.),Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 8, Academic Press, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gannon, L., Pardie, L. The importance of chronicity and controllability of stress in the context of stress-illness relationships. J Behav Med 12, 357–372 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844929
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844929