Specifying dysfunctional mismatches between different control dimensions

Abstract

Although the dominant paradigm in psychology currently suggests that having control is positive, there is a small literature suggesting that having or seeking control can be negative. In this article we develop a framework for specifying why and when control results in dysfunction. These conditions involve a mismatch between control dimensions of environmental affordances and personal variables of behavioural competencies, control cognitions, and control motivation. We apply this framework to two general sets of mismatches: high environmental affordances/low person control variables; low environmental affordances/high personal control variables. The first set of mismatches directly counters the dominant psychological paradigm because the mismatches specify when greater opportunities for environmental control are dysfunctional. The second set of conditions moves prior research on control to a new level of specificity by precisely demonstrating when low environmental affordances are problematic.