Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to assess the stability of locus of control (LOC) scores over time using data gathered from tests constructed to be consistent with Rotter’s definition of LOC. We compared LOC scores of parents (measured prior to the birth of the index child and at 6 and 18 years later) and their offspring (at ages 8 and 16) to explore how stable adult and child LOC was over time and to see how parental LOC was associated with the LOC of the child aged 8 and again at 16. Locus of control was measured using modified versions of adult (ANSIE, Nowicki and Duke, 1974) and child (CNSIE, Nowicki and Strickland, 1973) LOC scales, administered to participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in the United Kingdom. We predicted that: (1) adult scores would be more stable than children’s and (2) parents’ and children’s LOC scores would be related to one another. Analyses of the data found that individual’s LOC scores were significantly associated over time, with adult scores (r ∼ 0.50) more highly correlated than children’s (r ∼ 0.20). Correlations suggest more stability for adults than children, but also indicate the occurrence of substantial change across time. Although statistically significant, correlations between family members were small at both childhood and adolescent time points. Additional analyses suggested that mother and father LOC scores were more highly correlated with opposite rather than with same sex children, but again though significant the coefficients were small. We also analyzed the binary outcomes of externality to assess parental contributions to externality in the 8 and 16-year-old children and found correlations were significant, but small. Possible explanations are offered for why the associations between parent and child LOC were not higher. We concluded that researchers need to focus more on clarifying how children’s LOC is acquired.
Highlights
Over a half century ago, Rotter (1966) introduced the concept of locus of control of reinforcement (LOC) to the psychological literature defining it as a generalized problem-solving expectancy functioning within his social learning theory
As experience is gained from being in a specific situation, the ability of a generalized expectancy, such as LOC, to affect behavior diminishes and specific expectancies learned from being in the situation become more important
Should a situation change and become “new” again generalized expectancies may once again become an important predictor of behavior
Summary
Over a half century ago, Rotter (1966) introduced the concept of locus of control of reinforcement (LOC) to the psychological literature defining it as a generalized problem-solving expectancy functioning within his social learning theory. Within that classic article, Rotter presented a test to measure the degree to which reinforcement outcomes were perceived to be related to behavior He defined LOC as follows: “Internal versus external control refers to. Locus of Control Stability the degree to which persons expect that a reinforcement or an outcome of their behavior is contingent on their own behavior or personal characteristics versus the degree to which persons expect that the reinforcement or outcome is a function of chance, luck, or fate, is under the control of powerful others, or is unpredictable Such expectancies may generalize along a gradient based on the degree of semantic similarity of the situational cues” Should a situation change and become “new” again (as for example when a company is going through a management transition or when a child faces a change in teachers in school) generalized expectancies may once again become an important predictor of behavior
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