The relation between control over an aversive event and the amount of stress or pain the event produces has long been of interest to researchers in health psychology. This article presents a typology of control and reviews research that relates the four types of control (behavioral, cognitive, information, and retrospective) to reactions to aversive stimuli. After reviewing theories relevant to this area, a unifying theme is presented. It is proposed that reactions to potentially stressful events depend on their meaning for the individual. Three dimensions of meaning are discussed: endurable versus unendurable, means to desirable outcomes versus no desirable outcomes, and planned versus random events.

Vividly presented information is generally thought to be more persuasive and to have more impact on judgments than nonvividly presented information. However, an analysis of the experimental literature testing this hypothesis demonstrates little support for it. An examination of the proposed processes by which vividness effects are thought to occur (memorability, imageability, and affective impact) reveals that these arguments are themselves problematic. It is suggested that vividness effects may occur only under ponditions of differential attention and that failure to find vividness effects is due to the fact that absolute, not differential, attention is typically manipulated in vividness studies. It is concluded that the vividness effect may be far less elusive when searched for in situations that mirror the informational competition found in everyday life.

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Three questions about the role of perceived control in coping with a major life stressor were addressed in a sample of 71 cancer patients. As expected, those with greater perceptions of control were less depressed, even when physical functioning, marital satisfaction, and negative affectivity were controlled for. Consistent with a compensatory model of control, it was more important for patients to believe that they could control daily emotional reactions and physical symptoms than the course of the disease. Patients who endorsed irrational beliefs had lower overall perceptions of control. The results indicated that even patients who were physically or psychosocially worse off were better adjusted if they had higher perceptions of control.

A conceptual framework is presented for understanding what is meant by "finding meaning." It is proposed that individuals have life schemes that provide a sense of order and purpose in one's life. A life scheme is a cognitive representation of one's life, much like a story, which organizes one's perspectives on the world and oneself, goals one wishes to attain, and events that are relevant to those goals. Severely negative events can challenge parts of the life scheme, disrupting one's sense of order and/or purpose. Finding meaning is a process of changing the life scheme or one's perception of the event, so that feelings of order and purpose are restored. Ways in which meaning is found, the role of attributions in the search for meaning, and the effects of finding meaning on future victimization are discussed within the life scheme framework.