PERCEPTION OF CONTROL

Bambi Rose M. Española

OPS model Hardiness

to the OPS model, presence of three

humans are primarily personality dispositions
motivated by a desire for in an individual:
control commitment, control,
over their environment and challenge.

explicitly argues for the Control revolves around

universal primacy of whether an individual
external, behavioral control feels that they can
(Heckhausen & Schulz, influence what happens
1999). in their environment
 Degree of
control successful
development and
psychological
well-being

Perception of
control
How perceived control changes over
the life-span, and how these
perceptions actually relate to
measures of psychological well-
being?
 Mirowsky (1995) found declines in overall
sense of control with advancing age
among adults over age 50.
 MacArthur Studies of Successful Midlife
Development- self-perceived control
across seven domains of functioning in
this large sample of adults aged 25 to 75.
 • having more control in the
Older domains of work, finances,
adults and marriage

Younger • scored higher on control

over sex life and
adults relationship with children.
WHAT EFFECT, THEN, DOES FEELING IN
CONTROL HAVE ON FEELING GOOD?

 Experience Sampling Method (ESM)

 several samples of different ages (adolescents,
adults, and a sample of retired older adults)
 How much they felt in control at that moment
as well as their level of happiness.
CONT HAPPI
ROL NESS/
OF FEELI
SITUA NG
TION GOOD
 Evaluated the relationship between moment-to-
moment control and happiness
 to determine whether variations in how much
control individuals felt in the moment related
to how happy they felt.
 Variations in perceived control were only
minimally correlated with changes in affect
within individuals. This seems to be true for
nondistressed individuals only.
 Second, average daily levels of perceived control
more strongly correlated with affect in these
nondisturbed adult samples, suggesting that
people who in general feel more control over
their environment also tend to be happier in
general.
 Average daily rating is akin to a cognitive style
or lens in which they see their environment as
one which they can generally control
(Larson,1988)
 The stronger correlation between average
daily control and happiness than between
moment-to-moment measures suggests
that this stylistic measure may be a
component of psychological well-being in
nondisturbed individuals of different ages .
 Carver and colleagues (2000) have argued that
the literature showing the apparent benefits of
control beliefs may derive not from these beliefs
per se but rather from the general belief that the
outcome will be positive regardless of perceived
control over it.
 Participants: Patients in an early stage of breast
cancer.
 The authors argue that perceived control may
only be useful in situations in which personal
agency is necessary for the accomplishment of a
particular outcome.
 In many other cases, confidence that good things
will happen may be a better predictor of
psychological well-being than control.
 While the OPS model discussed earlier argues
for the universal primacy of actual control, it
also posits that attempting to maintain control
over a goal that is unlikely to be reached (e.g.
Deadlines ; the effect of menopause on a
woman’s goal of having a child) is not an
adaptive strategy (Wrosch&Heckhausen, 1999).
 Insome situations, feeling in control (an internal
locus) would lead people to feel responsible for
situations which may in fact not be amenable to
change, thus potentially leading to
demoralization and declines in psychological
well-being.
WISDOM
 According to Baltes and Staudinger (2000),
wisdom is “an expertise in the conduct and
meaning of life”
 Understanding what a good human life is and
what the ways are of achieving it. The emphasis
is on skill in dealing with problems that lack
clear-cut optimal solutions.
FIVE CRITERIA FOR WISDOM
 wisdom is considered a type of expertise.
Expertise in any domain requires extensive
factual and procedural knowledge about the
domain;
 that is, knowing what the domain is and how it
works. In the case of wisdom, this involves basic
knowledge of what life is like (how aging works,
body-changes, etc.) and how to deal with life,
such as advice-giving and problem-solving.
FIVE CRITERIA FOR WISDOM
 Lifespan contextualism
 Relativism of Values
 Concern with and understanding of
uncertainty.
 To measure wisdom-related performance, the
Berlin group devised a procedure in which
individuals respond to life problems, such as a
teenage girl who wishes to get married.
 Individual responses to the problems are
reported aloud, recorded, transcribed, and finally
coded by judges on scales representing the five
criteria. A wise response is rated high on all five
criteria.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF AGE TO
WISDOM
 Incross-sectional research with adults of different
ages, there appear to be no age differences in
wisdom-related performance from age 25 to 75.
 The acquisition of wisdom appears to be focused in
the 15–25 age range, during which time wisdom
appears to increase.