This document summarizes a research study that examined the relationship between perceptions of control, choice, and culture. The study found that: 1) Giving participants choice only produced higher feelings of control when it allowed them to influence the outcome; 2) Participants who could influence the outcome through their choice felt more in control and responsible than other groups; 3) Having control without choice led to higher feelings of influence than having no control. The results indicated that perceived control is associated with actual control over outcomes, not just the illusion of choice.

1. Fida Amir
Psyc320
Extra credit
Individualism, Collectivism, and Perceptions of Control Associated with Control and
Choice.
Feeling of control is important to people's overall wellbeing. This has been
understood for several years. References to the existence and importance of the sense of
personal control occupy much fictional literature as well as factual documents. The idea
of control appears in all aspects of human existence and may be such an important factor
for human beings that they experience it even in situations that are considered to be
chance or luck, such as lotteries. Personal control or the perception of control are factors
in health preservation in recovery from illness, in work behavior, and even in mortality. It
was considered as one of nine human drives, calling it the Drive for Control, defining it
as the desire to control one's environment by any means possible. The need to make
decisions, to employ control in one's life is a basic feature of human behavior. The basic
aspect of human nature is a drive to master the environment. Expression of this motive is
associated with effective adaptation; its awkward results in poor functioning. It was
reported that "people often exaggerate their degree of control, even in situations of
chance" , but it is actually healthy to exaggerate one's causal power.
Many research has been done on the relation between given a choice and the
enhanced perceived control. Is it really that the condition of a choice alone was sufficient
to produce control-related feelings. Langlosis decided to perform a research to untie
controllability from choice. He hypothesized that participants with controllability will
report higher control- related feelings than participants without controllability- even

2. without being able to predict the outcome. The presence of an illusory control effect
would be evident however if participants with choice regardless of controllability will
report higher control-related feelings than participants without choice. In this experiment
study, participants who are students at University of Windsor form different cultures
were told that they would proofread medical papers for either two minutes or twenty
minutes, a time period determined based on the contents of one of two envelopes marked
“left” and “ right”. The independent variable for this study were participants’ self
reported feelings of prediction, control, responsibility, and helplessness. In these
conditions, choice participants selected between envelopes, whereas no- choice
participants received the envelope determined by the experimenter’s coin flip.
Participants were deliberately not told what time period they received in order to hold
prediction constant at no-prediction. Prior to the experimental manipulation, participants
completed a horizontal/ vertical and individualism/ collectivism measure. This 32- item
questionnaire asked participants to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with
several statements on a scale form one to nine ( 1- strongly agree, 9-strongly disagree).
The dependent variable measures questionnaire was completed after the experimental
manipulation. Results indicated that to render higher feelings of perceived control, one’s
choice must make a difference in the outcome. Specifically, participants in the control/
choice condition felt more control and responsibility than the other two conditions.
Participants with control (different outcomes) felt more influence than participants
without control( same outcomes).
The result indicated that the dependent variable of perceived control, influence,
and positively correlated with each other. An ANOVA with group( choice/control,

3. choice/no control, no choice/ control) as the independent variable indicated non
significant group differences for both influence, but significant group differences for
responsibility, and perceived control. They found that participants with choice but no control
perceived less control and responsibility than those with control but more than those without.