PERCEIVED CONTROL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT IN GAY MEN WITH AIDS

The relationship of control beliefs to psychological adjustment was in vestigated in a sample of 24 gay men diagnosed with AIDS, participants in the University of California, Los Angeles site of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). Distinctions between generalized contingency beliefs and specific competence beliefs and between personal and vica rious control beliefs were included in the questionnaire and interview measures administered. The results support these distinctions and ind icate that beliefs in personal control over day-to-day symptoms and ov er course of illness were positively related to adjustment, whereas be liefs in control by others over course of illness and over medical car e and treatment were negatively related to adjustment. These relations hips appeared to be strongest for men who reported poorer health. Thes e associations were not accounted for by locus of control beliefs, neg ative affectivity, or time since diagnosis with AIDS.