HOW PERSONAL CONTROL INFLUENCES AMBIGUITY SEEKING AND COUNTER-HEDONISTIC TENDENCIES

Abstract

The attainment or maintenance of personal control (which can involve either the environment or the self as a target) is a fundamental human motivation (Skinner 1996). As such, the desire for personal control will be heightened when situational cues suggestive of the attainment of control are present or when control perception is threatened. Based on this assumption, this dissertation asserts that as the control motive is triggered, people tend to exercise/attain control through situations that are 1) more ambiguous or 2) more hedonically unpleasant. While the first instance promotes ambiguity seeking behaviors (which violate the ¿uncertainty reduction¿ norm), the second instance prompts behaviors towards seeking negative experience (which violates the ¿hedonism¿ norm).