An Application of Person—Environment Fit Theory: Perceived Versus Desired Control

A brief overview of Person—Environment Fit Theory and new findings applying this model to the area of perceived control are presented. This study examined whether different control constructs (i.e., perceived control, desired control, and “misfit” between perceived and desired control) are all important for predicting psychological adjustment. Respondents included 622 men and women who participated in a six‐month longitudinal panel study. Misfit measures for three sources of control (internal, others, and chance) accounted for significant variance independent of the variance accounted for by perceived and desired control measures. In general, either too much or too little perceived control relative to the amount desired tended to be associated with more psychological “strain.”