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The SOC scale (A. Antonovsky, 1987) purports to measure a disposition which engenders and enhances health but some empirical findings suggest that it is seriously contaminated with negative affectivity. In a criterion validation on 100 undergraduates at a predominantly Black university, SOC was correlated with S.E. Krug and E.F Johns' (1986) 16PF second-order factor scores, as a broad spectrum of personality variables. The SOC-Anxiety correlation was -.52, in line with studies intimating negative affectivity; it could, however, also be interpreted in terms of its inverse, emotional stability. SOC correlated significantly with the other 4 second-order factors too. It thus measured a complex mixture of personality domains, rather than a single predominant trait.
The construct of "sense of coherence" (SOC) was introduced by Antonovsky (1979, 1987) to describe a dispositional orientation, "a way of seeing the world" (Antonovsky, 1993, p. 725), which is presumed to engender and enhance health. To describe the development of the SOC, Antonovsky (1979) used the concept of "generalized resistance resources" (GRRs), each of which can facilitate avoiding or combating a wide variety of stressors; examples are money, shelter and food; intelligence and knowledge; social support; and rituals and religion. GRRs help the individual to make "sense out of the countless stressors with which we are constantly bombarded" (Antonovsky, 1987, p. xiii). When the person regularly experiences the availability of GRRs, a strong SOC develops. The SOC affects the overall quality of an individual's perception of the stimuli that impact on him or her. The stimuli are perceived as comprehensible making cognitive sense, as being under his or her own control and under the control of legitimate others (e.g. spouse, friends, formal authorities, God), and as being motivationally meaningful-being welcome challenges that are worth investing oneself in and engaging with (cf. Antonovsky, 1987, 1993). In turn, persons with a strong SOC will have the ability to bring into play the GRRs available to them. The SOC is construed as the product of having grown up in a particular social structure, culture and historical period, as well as of idiosyncratic events in the individual's own life.
Antonovsky (1987, 1991) and Strumpfer (1990) placed the SOC construct in the context of related models of health-enhancement, for instance, personality hardiness, self-efficacy, and learned resourcefulness....