Control Motivational System

Abstract

The General Need for Control Th e idea of control, being in control or having control is a relatively intu-itive and familiar concept for people in general. Th e popularity and wide usage of this term in everyday life is probably due to the fact that control is easily recognisable and relevant to many aspects of human function-ing. On the other hand, this concept tends to cover multiple behavioural manifestations in a wide range of diff erent life domains. As such, the term " control " awakens multiple meanings and connotations, many of which are negative. Considering the wide applicability of the control concept, it therefore comes as no surprise to learn that the notion of control repre-sents a relatively well-researched theme in the contemporary literature. In fact, one could easily say that control is one of the terms used just as often in everyday life as it is in research. Indeed, the quantity of historical and current literature on this topic clearly indicates that control is employed in a broad range of applications, conditions and contexts. In a somewhat simplifi ed defi nition, the idea of control refers to human eff orts to master the challenging situations in life by exerting infl uence on the environ-ment, regulating one's own actions and coping with the actions of oth-56 Basic Motivation and Human Behaviour ers. Th e link between control and the evolution of the human species is obvious in the sense that having control is quite adaptive and important for survival (Friedman & Lackey, 1991 ; Th ompson & Schlehofer, 2008). With proper identifi cation, categorisation and accurate understanding of the relation between various stimuli, the individual is more likely to avoid unwanted outcomes and maintain self-preservation. In contrast, the signs of a loss of control are potentially threatening because they suggest an important shortcoming in the individual's abilities to cope with a demanding environment. In the current literature, the notion of control is in one way or another associated with a wide range of psycho-logical phenomena, including attitude-related behaviour Th oresen, 2002), self-perception and self-appraisal (Strube & Yost, 1993), and achievement striving and need for superiority (Adler, 1979 /1933), to name but a few. Early research on this topic shows that it is crucial to perceive con-trol not only for our psychological well-being, but also for our physical health (Langer, 1983). Th ere is an astonishing degree of consensus on the importance of control across very diff erent theoretical perspectives rang-ing from psychoanalysis (Adler, 1956) and psychology (DeCharms, 1968) to naturalistic observations based on fi eld studies in the realm of social anthropology (e.g. Malinowski, 1955). Moreover, the importance of con-trol is not limited to human functioning. Indeed, early experiments in the domain of animal research show that if allowed to predict the deliver-ance of shock, rats do not develop ulcers (Weiss, 1968). Th is suggests that shock itself is relatively unimportant as a cause of ulcers in as much as whether the organism can control and predict that shock. Th ese fi ndings from classical studies on animals are further reinforced by the mount-ing general empirical evidence showing that prediction and control over