LAUSR

A perceived sense of control over the environment is one of our basic needs. People’s need of control is a survival mechanism and a factor of human progress. Perceived control refers to the individual’s beliefs about the controllability of a situation and about the degree to which she/he has the skills and abilities necessary to obtain a desired outcome. Illusion of control is people’s tendency to overestimate their abilities to control the events. According to Taylor and Brown (1988), illusion of control is one of the people’s positive illusions, enhancing their emotional comfort and sense of security, in a word which is perceived more familiar and predictable than it is in reality. The general aims of this study are: 1) to investigate the presence of unrealistic perceptions of control in a sample of Romanian students and 2) to investigate a possible correlation between illusory control and well-being. The results confirm people’s general tendency to overestimate their ability to control the events. A direct correlation between illusion of control and well-being could not been demonstrated. The role of illusory control as an adaptive mechanism is discussed according to the available data.