Locus of control
Locus of control is one of the four dimensions of core self-evaluations – one's fundamental appraisal of oneself – along with neuroticism, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.
[4] In a follow-up study, Judge et al. (2002) argued that locus of control, neuroticism, self-efficacy, and self-esteem factors may have a common core.
[5] Locus of control as a theoretical construct derives from Julian B. Rotter's (1954) social learning theory of personality.
Early work on the topic of expectations about control of reinforcement had been performed in the 1950s by James and Phares (prepared for unpublished doctoral dissertations supervised by Rotter at Ohio State University).
Bernard Weiner argued that rather than ability-versus-luck, locus may relate to whether attributions are made to stable or unstable causes.
[citation needed] They also believe that every action has its consequence, which makes them accept the fact that things happen and it depends on them if they want to have control over it or not.
A person with an external locus of control will tend to believe that their present circumstances are not the effect of their own influence, decisions, or control,[8] and even that their own actions are a result of external factors, such as fate, luck, history, the influence of powerful forces, or individually or unspecified others (such as governmental entities; corporations; racial, religious, ethnic, or fraternal groups; sexes; political affiliations; outgroups; or even perceived individual personal antagonists) and/or a belief that the world is too complex for one to predict or influence its outcomes.
Laying blame on others for one's own circumstances with the implication one is owed a moral or other debt is an indicator of a tendency toward an external locus of control.
Since 1970, Rotter's assumption of uni-dimensionality has been challenged, with Levenson (for example) arguing that different dimensions of locus of control (such as beliefs that events in one's life are self-determined, or organized by powerful others and are chance-based) must be separated.
People who have bi-local characteristics are known to handle stress and cope with their diseases more efficiently by having the mixture of internal and external locus of control.
The Duttweiler (1984) Internal Control Index (ICI) addresses perceived problems with the Rotter scales, including their forced-choice format, susceptibility to social desirability and heterogeneity (as indicated by factor analysis).
The ICI assess variables pertinent to internal locus: cognitive processing, autonomy, resistance to social influence, self-confidence and delay of gratification.
A small (133 student-subject) validation study indicated that the scale had good internal consistency reliability (a Cronbach's alpha of 0.85).
In discussing applications of the concept to health psychology Furnham and Steele refer to Claire Bradley's work, linking locus of control to the management of diabetes mellitus.
They argue that a stronger relationship is found when health locus of control is assessed for specific domains than when general measures are taken.
[31] Despite the importance Norman and Bennett attach to specific measures of locus of control, there are general textbooks on personality which cite studies linking internal locus of control with improved physical health, mental health and quality of life in people with diverse conditions: HIV, migraines, diabetes, kidney disease and epilepsy.
Those students who were identified as more externally controlled (believing that their future depended upon luck or fate) tended to have lower academic-performance levels.
Consistent with these findings, Kaye Sweetser (2014) found that Republicans significantly displayed greater internal locus of control than Democrats and Independents.
[47][48] The development of locus of control is associated with family style and resources, cultural stability and experiences with effort leading to reward.
[49] The 1995 research of Schneewind suggests that "children in large single parent families headed by women are more likely to develop an external locus of control"[50][51] Schultz and Schultz also claim that children in families where parents have been supportive and consistent in discipline develop internal locus of control.
Indeed, there is evidence here that changes in locus of control in later life relate more visibly to increased externality (rather than reduced internality) if the two concepts are taken to be orthogonal.
[8] A study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine examined the health effect of childhood locus of control.
[62][63] A study made by Takaki and colleagues (2006), focused on the sex or gendered differences with relationship to internal locus of control and self-efficacy in hemodialysis patients and their compliance.
The question of whether people from different cultures vary in locus of control has long been of interest to social psychologists.
On a less broad scale, Sims and Baumann explained how regions in the United States cope with natural disasters differently.
Smith (1989) has argued that locus of control only weakly measures self-efficacy; "only a subset of items refer directly to the subject's capabilities".
[73] Smith noted that training in coping skills led to increases in self-efficacy, but did not affect locus of control as measured by Rotter's 1966 scale.
Aging shows to be a very important factor that can be related to the severity of the symptoms of PTSD experienced by patients following the trauma of war.
A study by Chung et al. (2006) focused on how the responses of spinal cord injury post-traumatic stress varied depending on age.
After the study, they concluded that age does not make a difference on how spinal cord injury patients respond to the traumatic events that happened.
