Control: The extent to which an individual feels able to direct/regulate his or her behaviour.
Adler (1930) described the need to control one's personal environment as an "intrinsic necessity of life itself".
Bettleheim (1943) described "Muselmanner" (walking corpses) as they "came to believe the repeated statements of the guards - that there was no hope for them...".
Stotland & Blumenthal (1964) found that students who could choose the order in which they took tests were less anxious when taking them.
Langer et al (1975) found that hospital patients with a greater sense of control requested fewer painkillers and also showed less anxiety.
Langer & Rodin highlighted the importance of perceptions of personal control, and believed that the desire to control the world around us is a fundamental characteristic of human beings.
The aim of Langer & Rodin's study was:
To investiate the effects of enhanced personal responsibility and choice in a group of nursing home patients.
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Langer & Rodin 1976 - Procedures
Nursing home in Connecticut, USA. 2 floors were used; Floor 2 and Floor 4.
Floor 3 separated the 2 floors, ensuring there was no contact.
Experimental Group (RIG) was made up of 8 males and 39 females.
Control Group (CG) was made up of 9 males and 35 females.
The RIG were given the choice to rearrange their rooms, choose the film night, look after their own plant, and give opinions on complaint handling.
The CG were told which night was film night, their plant was looked after by someone else, and their complaints were handled by staff. The staff were in control.
They were given the same message 3 days later.
They were given 2 questionnaires; 1 before the briefing and 1 three weeks after the briefing.
First Questionnaire:
Assessed how much control the residents felt they had.
Assessed how alert they felt.
Used an 8 point scale.
Second Questionnaire:
Completed by 2 nurses who were unaware of the terms of the study.
They rated the residents' happiness, alertness, sociability and activity levels.
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Langer & Rodin 1976 - Findings & Conclusions
In the first questionnaire, there were no significant differences between the 2 groups.
In the second questionnaire:
RIG had greater happiness levels after the experiment than the CG.
RIG had 48% happier residents, compared to 25% of the CG.
RIG reported themselves to be more active after the experiment.
RIG were reportedly more alert.
20% of the RIG didn't know what control meant, so their answers weren't meaningful.
RIG spent less time engaging in passive activities (e.g. watching TV).
CG spent more time engaging in passive activities.
93% of the RIG considered to have improved.
RIG had higher film night attendance.
RIG had higher participation in the jelly bean competition.
Conclusions:
Supports the view that "inducing a greater sense of personal responsibility...produces improvement"
71% of the CG become more debilitated over the 3 week period.
Increase in responsibility lead to increased happiness, which lead to behavioural improvements.
Behavioural improvements were significant in the RIG.
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Langer & Rodin 1976 - Evaluating The Methodology
Method - Field Experiment:
Can't control the extraneous variables.
Participant behaviour is more natural because they don't know they're being observed - reduced demand characteristics.
Reliability:
Two nurses made the same decisions on the questionnaires, gives the study inter rater reliability.
External reliability; Langer et al (1975) found similar findings with hospital patients.
Validity:
Nurses were unaware of the experiment purpose, so their questionnaire answers are valid and unbiased.
High internal validity; the independent variable (IV) of control led to the dependent variable (DV) of happiness.
Sampling:
Low population validity due to all the participants being American, so findings can't be generalised to British residents due to cultural differences.
Gender bias because most residents were female, so the findings can't really be generalised to males.
Ethical Issues: Protection; CG left experiment feeling more debilitated than before.
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Langer & Rodin 1976 - Alternative Evidence
Suls & Mullen (1981) - Supports:
They used SRRS to assess life changes.
They noted which changes were and weren't controllable.
Uncontrollable life changes were associated with illness.
Savell (1991) - Contradicts:
43 institutionalised adults were exposed to different opportunities for choice.
The study found no difference between choice and no choice groups in terms of well being.
Wurm et al (2007) - Develops:
1000 participants were assessed at the beginning of a study, and then again 6 years later.
Wurm et al found a negative correlation between the sense of control and physical wellbeing.
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