Bridging the Divide: The role of perceived control in mediating reasoning and activism

Abstract

One-hundred-and-two students, either actively or not actively involved in the pro-choice or pro-life movements, completed the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and Spheres of Control (SOC) measure. Participants also rated their degree of involvement in on-campus activities. Abortion activists more frequently endorsed principled and anti-establishment moral issues, and scored higher on sociopolitical control than did non-activists. SOC and DIT scores served to discriminate abortion activists from non-activists--more so for women than for men. Self-reported ratings of activism moderated self-reported assessments of control for abortion activists, such that more involved students rated themselves as feeling greater sociopolitical and interpersonal control than less involved students. Results are discussed in terms of the possible relationship between reasoning, control and behaviour.