title: Evidence that perceived behavioural control is a multidimensional construct: perceived control and perceived difficulty.
abstract: Four studies were performed to test whether Ajzen's (1988, 1991) concept of perceived behavioural control is really an amalgamation of two variables, which we term 'perceived control' and 'perceived difficulty'. Perceived control refers to the extent to which people consider the performance of a behaviour to be under their voluntary control. Perceived difficulty refers to whether people consider a behaviour to be easy or difficult to perform, Findings from Studies 1 to 4 demonstrate that it is possible to perform manipulations that affect perceived control more than perceived difficulty, or that affect perceived difficulty more than perceived control. Studies 2-4 used a variety of paradigms to show that people distinguish between beliefs that are presumed to underlie perceived control and perceived difficulty. Finally, we performed a meta-analysis in Study 5 to determine whether perceived control or perceived difficulty is more important for predicting behavioural intentions and behaviours. Taken together, the findings support the distinction between perceived control and perceived difficulty, and also suggest that perceived difficulty is a better predictor of most behavioural intentions and behaviours than is perceived control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces 88003-8001, USA. trafimow@crl.nmsu.edu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trafimow
authors.forename: Paschal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sheeran
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Conner
authors.forename: Krystina A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Finlay
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015206:Southwestern United States; D006113:United Kingdom