PERCEIVING CONTROL, CONSTRUING BENEFITS, AND DAILY PROCESSES IN RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS

To examine the influence of perceived pain control and pain benefit appraisals on adjustment to rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we followed fifty-four RA patients for seventy-five days. After completing measures of dispositional optimism and appraisals of control over, and benefits from, their chronic pain, participants reported each day their pain intensity, mood, and activity limitations due to pain. Controlling for disease activity and dispositional optimism, those who believed they had more control over their pain at the outset of the study experienced less daily pain. Daily pain also moderated the relation between control beliefs and adjustment as well as the relation between benefit appraisals and adjustment: With increased levels of pain, greater control was associated with less positive mood. But those who perceived more benefits and then experienced severe pain reported fewer days on which their activities were limited by their pain. These findings are discussed as they relate to current conceptions of control.