ABSTRACT
In this chapter, perceived control is conceptualized as the agentic representation that persons construct for themselves. Three questions were addressed. The first investigates to what extent perceived control is specific to particular domains, the second, how many dimensions are involved in perceived control, and the third deals with the dynamics between the components of perceived control and their effects on subjective well-being. These questions were investigated in three studies with a total sample size of more than 8,000 participants, including a longitudinal study across adolescence, a cross-sectional study across the life-span, and a cross-sectional study across 14 socio-cultural contexts. Hence we think that the conclusions drawn from this research on the dynamics of perceived control are generalizeable across both adolescence and adulthood as well as across sociocultural contexts. We found that the various situations representing the participants’ life context can be represented by three major domains, the personal, the interpersonal, and the societal domain. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed in each study a two-factor structure of perceived control. We called these two components control expectancy and control appraisal. These two components in both life domains showed stability across individual development, consistent mean-level changes across different age-cohorts, and they were important predictors of the participants’ subjective well-being. Overall, these results foster theoretical evidence that perceived control is multidimensional and domain-specific, and that perceived control is an important predictor of psychosocial functioning. Before presenting the relevant results, we refer to a few more theoretical considerations about the dynamics of perceived control in human life.
