Rotter's internal-external scale: Confirmatory factor analysis and correlation with social desirability for alternative scale formats.

Abstract

536 undergraduates completed alternative versions of Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. 178 Ss completed the scales in their original formats (forced-choice and true/false, respectively), and 358 Ss completed a Likert instrument that incorporated both measures. It was hypothesized (a) that J. F. Watson's (see record 1982-29470-001) 2-factor structure for the forced-choice scale and B. E. Collins's (see record 1974-25219-001) 4-factor structure for the Likert version would be confirmed and (b) that both scales would exhibit significant social desirability correlation. A restricted factor analysis of the data confirmed the reported factorial structures, but the variance explained by the factors was small, and there was evidence that the scale may be tapping a unitary construct. Correlation with social desirability was found for the Likert data but not for the forced-choice results. However, data indicate that there may be problems with the interpretation of results that were based on use of the Marlowe-Crowne scale.