Control Motivation and Social Cognition

Over the past two decades theorists and researchers have given increasing attention to the effects, both beneficial and harmful, of various control­ related motivations and beliefs. People's notions of how much personal control they have or desire to have over important events in their lives have been used to explain a host of performance and adaptational outcomes, including motivational and performance deficits associated with learned helplessness (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978) and