LOCUS OF CONTROL IN INTELLECTUAL SITUATIONS IN AMERICAN AND CHINESE SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

The Intellectual Achievement Responsibility (IAR) Questionnaire, developed by Crandall et al., was administered to 720 children, 360 from the United States and 360 from Taiwan. The subjects were equally distributed in the sixth and eighth grades, and also by sex. A 2 × 2 × 2 (culture, grade, sex) analysis of variance was performed separately on scores of the subscale of success experiences (I +) and subscale of failure experiences (I ‐). The results showed that: (a) American children obtained significantly higher I + but lower I ‐ scores than Chinese children. (b) Sixth graders obtained significantly higher scores on both I + and I ‐ subscales than eighth graders. (c) Boys scored significantly higher than girls on I +, but sex differences in I ‐ were not significant. It was also found that American children were more internal in success than in failure situations, while the reverse was true for Chinese children.