ABSTRACT

The sense of personal control is a pervasive and compelling construct in the psychology of adult development and aging, and indeed at all ages. It appears in the literature as a personality trait (Phares, 1973), as a cognitive style moderating performance on intellectual tasks (Baltes & Willis, 1982), as a mediator in people's reactions to stress (Rodin, 1982), as a theory of depression (Seligman, 1975), and as a central mechanism in the design of effective intervention programs (Sherman, 1981). The construct is most often operationalized as a score on an Internal-External (I-E) locus of control scale. I-E scales were developed to evaluate generalized expectancies for reinforcement. However, attributional and interactionist conceptions of sense of personal control have proved attractive, if not readily amenable to study with use of I-E scales (cf. Tyler, Gatz, & Keenan, 1979). In particular, Tyler et al. have conceptualized attribution as a constructivist process. It is that orientation that has led to our current emphasis on a detailed study of the chain of steps that people follow in organizing beliefs about control and acting on them.