Williams and Irurita (in Nieswiadomy, 2008) studied the personal control and emotional comfort of hospitalized patients. Interviews were conducted with 40 patients, and 75 hours of field observations were conducted. The basic psychological process identified by the researchers was labeled “optimizing personal control to facilitate emotional comfort.” Personal control referred to the ability of patients to influence their environment; emotional comfort was defined as a state of relaxation that affected the physical status of the patient. Personal control was found to be a central feature of emotional comfort.