| Abstract: | Tested past research findings that Type A's (coronary-prone) and Type B's (non-coronary-prone) differ in their behavioral responses to lack of control. 73 undergraduates, classified as Type A or B on the Jenkins Activity Survey, were used to examine perceptual judgments of noncontingency. Types A's and B's assumed the role of either an actor or an observer on a standard contingency-judgment task. Consistent with previous research, both Type A's and B's exhibited an illusion of control when in the role of actor. Only Type B's exhibited an illusion of control when observing another person perform the task. Additional analyses indicated that the absence of an illusion of control by Type A observers reflected accuracy rather than a motivational distortion. Mood was also found to mediate control judgments, but only for actors. The plausibility of a memory-based interpretation for the mood effects is discussed. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
