Sense of Control Over Life Assessment
Measures how much control people feel they have over key areas of their life — work, money, health, relationships, and time — plus what's driving that feeling. An AI follow-up interview digs into the one domain where control feels lowest, reconstructing a real recent moment instead of relying on abstract self-ratings.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
Overall, how much control do you feel you have over the direction your life is taking right now?
How much control do you feel you have in each of these areas of your life?
- Career or work
- Personal finances
- Physical health
- Relationships
- Free time and leisure
- +1 more
In the last 30 days, how often did you feel like things were happening to you rather than resulting from your own choices?
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Almost always
When something in your life goes wrong, how much do you believe your own actions can change the outcome?
If you gained more say over each of these areas, which would increase your overall sense of control the most, and which the least?
- Career decisions
- Financial decisions
- Health and wellness choices
- Where or how you live
- Relationships and social time
- Daily schedule and time use
- Major life decisions (moving, having kids, etc.)
- Long-term goals and plans
In the last 30 days, how often were you able to decide your own daily schedule without needing someone else's approval?
- Never
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Always
Which of the following, if any, currently limit your sense of control over your life?
- Financial constraints
- Work or employer demands
- Family obligations
- Health issues
- Lack of time
- Other people's expectations
Identify the life domain where the respondent's matrix ratings show the lowest sense of control, and reconstruct one specific, recent moment when that lack of control was most apparent: what happened, what they wanted to do differently, and what actually stopped them. If their ratings are high across every domain, probe instead what specific habit, decision, or circumstance they credit for that and whether they expect it to hold up under stress.
What's one thing that would give you more control over your life in the next few months?
Which age range do you fall into?
- Under 25
- 25-34
- 35-44
- 45-54
- 55-64
- 65 or older
- Prefer not to say
What's your current employment status?
- Employed full-time
- Employed part-time
- Self-employed
- Unemployed
- Student
- Retired
- Prefer not to say
That's everything — thank you for reflecting on this with us. Your answers feed into a broader picture of where people feel in charge of their lives and where more support is needed.
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Goes beyond a single control rating with a matrix covering work, money, health, relationships, and time, plus a MaxDiff to prioritize which domain matters most
- Includes an AI follow-up interview that identifies the respondent's lowest-scoring domain and reconstructs a specific recent moment instead of stopping at abstract self-ratings
- Captures both frequency-based behavior (daily schedule autonomy, feeling things 'happen to you') and attribution (how much personal actions influence outcomes when things go wrong)
- Closes with an open-ended prompt on what would increase control soon, feeding into an auto-generated report rather than a static score sheet
QuestionPro
Control of your life survey templateA directly comparable, purpose-built template on the same topic — sense of control over one's life. It's a static question set for self-administered fielding, with no adaptive follow-up or interview component described. Good for benchmarking question coverage but relies entirely on fixed-response items.
What it does well
- Topic-matched template built specifically around perceived life control
- Likely offers standard survey logic and reporting typical of QuestionPro's platform
- Ready to deploy without customization for teams wanting a quick baseline
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI interview to probe the specific domain where control feels lowest
- No mechanism to reconstruct a concrete recent event — respondents self-rate in the abstract
- No published methodology on how scoring or question weighting works
Jotform
Life Coach Assessment Form TemplateThis is a general life-coaching intake form rather than a dedicated sense-of-control instrument — it covers life areas for coaching purposes, not specifically locus-of-control measurement. Useful as a form-builder starting point, but it's a static form template, not a fielded, scored assessment. Relevant mainly for teams wanting a customizable form shell.
What it does well
- Easy to customize within Jotform's drag-and-drop form builder
- Familiar intake-form format for coaches collecting client background
- Can be embedded or shared quickly like other Jotform templates
Where it falls short
- Built for coaching intake, not specifically for measuring felt control across life domains
- No adaptive or voice AI interview to dig into a respondent's lowest-control area
- No automated per-response quality scoring or auto-generated analytical report
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.