Locus of Control of Adolescent Children in Context to Their Sex, Location and Types of Schools

Abstract

Locus of control refers to a person's beliefs about control over life events. Locus of control is the extent to which people believe that they are responsible for their behavioral outcomes. It has often been cited as an important factor in achievement oriented behaviour. Some people feel personally responsible for the things that happen to them. Those people are labeled internals. People with an internal locus of control tend to believe their behavior influences outcomes, while those with an external locus of control tend to attribute outcomes to outside forces such as fate, chance, luck and other people. They feel that their outcomes in life are determined by forces beyond their control. These people are labeled as externals.Obviously, most people fall between the two extremes forming a continuous distribution of locus of control beliefs. Locus of control is thought to be relatively enduring dispositional characteristics, although certainly modifiable through experience. People need to believe in their own abilities to achieve and be happy. They need to develop a sense of control. People's locus of control influences how they view the world and how they identify the causes of success or failure in their lives. Internal factors mean personal whereas external are situational ones.The variable of locus of control is of major significance in understanding the nature of learning processes in different kinds of learning situations. The construct of locus of control, an integral part of social learning theory of Rotter (1954) is a personality dimension involving an individual's perceived control over events occurring in his life. This concept provides the general theoretical background for his conception of the nature and effects of reinforcement and his work on levels of expectancies.Rotter's social learning theory (1954, 66) is the source of the concept of locus of control. The first measure of the construct as an interpersonal variable was developed by Phares (1955), and was later revised by James (1957). Other measures followed shortly thereafter (Bialer, 1961, Grave 1961; Battle and Rotter 1963; Crandall, Kathovsky & Preston 1965; Rotter 1966).Mamlin, et al (2001 ) state that males tend to be more internal than females. They further add that as people get older they tend to become more internal people. Managerand Eikeland (2001) found that girls had significantly higher total internal locus of control scores than boys. Boys were, however, significantly more internally oriented than girls on a subscale related to the respondents general belief in luck, while girls were significantly more internally oriented than boys on a school effect scale.Schuttz and Schuttz (2005) point out significant differences in locus of control which have not been found for adults in a U.S. population. They further said that there may be a specific sex based differences for specific categories of item to assess locus of control. Michele (2006) reports by studying achieving gifted (AG), under achieving gifted (UAG), and non gifted (NG) students that under achieving gifted students were more externally oriented than achieving gifted students. She further adds that non gifted students were more externally controlled than achieving gifted students. In regard to underachievers, males were more externally controlled than females.Sukhdeep (2 011 ) in her recent study found that (i) no sex differences are there on either external or internal LOC and no differences are found on both LOC between rural and urban students; (ii) the students with internal LOC are more emotional matured and have high emotional competencies than the students with external LOC.It is stated that every child has his own personality construct. Some of them are internally oriented who think that they can grow on the basis of their abilities and hidden talent; while many others are of the opinion that chance or luck plays an important role in their lives; as they are externally oriented. …