| Research on adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) suggests that having been reared by an alcoholic parent results in psychological adjustment problems in some, but not all adult offspring, including problems with perceived control in interpersonal relationships. The social psychology literature on illusion of control provides a conceptual framework and methods to study issues of control in ACAs. The present study used this approach to compare perceived control among adult female children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents using two types of task (social and nonsocial) that varied in degree of actual control. In a 2 (Parental drinking status) x 2 (Control level) x 2 (Task type) design, half of the participants in each parental drinking status group (n = 30 per group) were assigned either to a controllable or uncontrollable task condition that was the same across the two types of task, which were presented as a within-subjects factor in counterbalanced order. The nonsocial computer task consisted of either pressing or not pressing the space bar in an effort to control the appearance of a green sign. In the controllable condition, participant responses had up to an 80% contingency between responding and the sign's appearance, whereas in the uncontrollable condition, responses had no effect on the sign's appearance. The social task required participants to view three 3-minute videotaped adult social interactions and to answer questions (solvable or unsolvable) about each interaction. Following the tasks, participants rated their degree of control for the computer task, performance on the social task, confidence in their ratings of each task, and attributions for performance on each. Results indicated that both ACAs and controls were similar and relatively accurate in their perceptions of control on the controllable tasks; however, they both exhibited an illusion of control on the uncontrollable tasks. The attribution ratings further showed similar, common patterns of responding across the parental drinking status group. Thus, the study did not support the operation of different control processes among ACA and control participants. |
