A Measure of Control

Control is a venerable concept, still immenselypopular on television shows such as Oprah and Dr. Phil, where ‘‘taking control of one’s life’ ’ is recommended for every difficult situation. In the scientific literature, the measurement of control over one’s health was introduced in the 1970s. The Health Locus of Control scale,1 building on Rotter’s distinction between internal and external control,2 addressed 3 aspects of control: self or internal con-trol, chance or the absence of control, and belief in the influence of powerful others. These factors are considered to be stable personality characteristics, or traits. The control concept has lost some popular-ity as ‘‘it was not easy to manipulate Perceived Con-trol in health care settings, for instance by giving patients choices over aspects of their treat