Case study 8

Context and aims:Langer at al/found hospital patients who felt a greater sense of control requested fewere pain medication/Stotland and blumenthal students that were able to choose the order of a set of ability tests were less anxious/Martin seligman/linked lack of control to depression/learned helplessness syndrome develops when someone persistently feels unable to control events in their life/aim to investigate the effects of personal responsibility and choice on a groupd of nursing home patients/wanted to see weather increaed control has generalised benificial effects/weather physical and mental alertness activity and socialness were effected/weather direct experience of personal responsibility would be generalised such that those participants who had greater control in situations generalised this to the rest of their life.

Procedures:Nursing home in connecticut USA/judged as one of the best;clean cheerful etc/2 floors chosen each were of simular age and socio-economic status with a spread of gender/one floor was asigned the control group and the other the RIG(experiment group)/in the RIG 8 males 39 females residents were responsible for themselves were asked for opinions on how complaints were handled given a plant to loof after and allowed to choose which night was film night/control groupd opposite/announcement made on each floor by outgoing 33 year old male/RIG given a more enpowering message/control group told staff have tried to make things better/3 days later same message was given again/3 weeks later given 2 questionaires given same ones as a week before and at breifing/questionaire 1;administered by research assisstant who was unaware of hypothesis/assesd residents control over events and happiness activness and alertness measured out of 8/ Q 2;completed by day and night nurse/residents rated on happiness/alertness/dependancy/socialness/notes made on sleeping and eating habits/film niht attendance wheel chiar use and comp. participation noted

Findings and conclusions:Both groups had very similar characteristics/it indicates there are no other factors effectsing the patients/RIG(48%) significantly more happy than CG(25%)/RIG significantly more active/no difference between reported ratings of slef control but 20% claimed not to understand the question/RIG had bigger increase in alertness levels than control/RIG increased time seeing other patients/RIG decreased time doing passive activities/control increased time doing this/RIG 93% improvement control 21% improvment/film night attendance significantly increased in RIG/10 RIG took part in jelly bean contest 1 control patient did/71% of control patients became more debilated/Conluded its not clear weather behavioural changes due to indirect or direct consequence of increased choice perception/mechanisms should be put in place to increase sense of personal responsibility/supports original hypothesis that increased control positively affect health

Methodology:field experiment;Adv:greater ecological validity than lab experiment/carried out in own environment/demand chracteristics less likely to occur as aim is not obvious.Diss:difficult to control variables/difficult to record data/ethical issues present/opportunity sampling used for ppt/random sampling used to select floors/adv;produced unbiased sample as there is no personal selection/as long as original sample is unbiased then sample is more likeley to be representative.Diss:time consuming as process takes time.Might be less valid as home was execptional standard and therefor is not the same as other across the world/nurses collecting data unaware of hypothesis or aims and therefor unable to be biased/Increased reliability as nurses readings were so similar and therefor not likely to be down to chance.

Alternative evidence:Rodin follow up:re-evaluated residents 18 months later via nurse ratings again/experimental treatment put in place had sustained beneficial effects and decreased mortality rates(25% down to 15%)/Supports conclusion that providing choice and control had beneficial effects on life.Sul and mullen:Used SRRS to asses life changes noting which ones were controllable and which were not/uncontrollable ones were more associated with illness/supports conclusion as the changes that are controllable are less likely to have negative effects/cohen et al:viral challenge 400 participants/2 groups/1 given the common cold and the other given a placebo/Used questionaire to assess stress levels/positive correlation between stress levels and catching the common/those who felt their lives were uncontrollable were doubly likely to catch a cold/supports as those who felt they had less control over their lives more likely to develop illness