Date of Award

Spring 1991

Project Type

Dissertation

Program or Major

Psychology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

First Advisor

Victor A Benassi

Abstract

Female college students' perceptions of control over outcomes were examined in a high outcome, noncontingent, bivariate, act-outcome task. Logit regression revealed that the odds of judging low control and the odds of judging no relation increased when subjects performed the task in the presence of self-focusing stimuli. When subjects performed the task in front of a mirror, or in the presence of a video camera or an observer, the odds of judging low control increased by a factor of 2.57, 2.74, and 2.74 respectively. Subjects in the mirror, camera, and observer conditions also judged "no relation" between actions and outcomes with greater frequency; the odds of judging no relation in the mirror, camera, and observer condition increased by a factor of 1.78, 3.14, and 3.43, respectively. Measures of depression and individual differences in self-consciousness predicted neither low judgments of control nor judgments of "no relation." Linear regression on measures of control judgment accuracy indicated that self-aware subjects also judged control accurately with respect to the objective contingency of act-outcome events. The results of this experiment demonstrate that self-aware subjects performing in a noncontingent judgment of control task are less susceptible to the illusion of control than those not self-aware.

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