Expressed emotion and locus of control

Expressed emotion is a robust and reliable predictor of psychiatric relapse across a range of psychopathological conditions and diagnoses. Theoretical speculation about the expressed emotion construct has suggested that high levels of criticism in relatives might be linked to attributions and beliefs about the patient's ability to control his or her symptoms or problem behaviors. Although there is some empirical support for this notion, no study to date has examined relatives' beliefs about their own abilities to control problem situations. This study compared high- and low-critical relatives of patients with schizophrenia on a measure of locus of control. Consistent with prediction, the locus of control scores of high-critical relatives were indicative of a more internal locus of control, whereas those of the low-critical relatives were indicative of a more external locus of control.