Situational Behavioural Control

What it measures

Four items measure the degree to which a person feels in control of their surroundings in a given situation. Consiglio, De Angelis, and Costabile (2018) created the scale for Study 6 with 433 U.S. MTurk participants. A factor analysis confirmed unidimensionality. The scale version presented here was worded hypothetically; a real-experience version also exists (alpha = .84, n = 101), with minor wording changes (e.g., item 1 rephrased as 'Right now, I feel in control').

Response format

7-point Likert (anchors not stated)

Scale items

• I would feel in control.
• I would have control over my surroundings.
• The current situation would feel out of my control. (r)
• I would feel a loss of personal control. (r)

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Items 3 and 4 are reverse-scored. Response scale anchors were not reported in the original article. A real-world version of the scale replaces 'would' with present-tense phrasing (e.g., 'Right now, I feel in control'). Note: a footnote in the original article referencing blanks in the items appears to be a copy-paste error — there are no blanks in the items as presented.

Citation

Consiglio, I., De Angelis, M., & Costabile, M. (2018). The effect of social density on word of mouth. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(3), 511–528.

Keywords