The Deviance and Relationship between Locus of Control, Control Ratio, and Self‐Control

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to examine the widely used term controllability through analysis of three important factors, based on three known theories of delinquency: The first factor, the control ratio, is the relationship between people's perception of their control over their environment and their perception of the environment's control over them (Tittle, Control Balance: Toward a General Theory of Deviance, Westview, 1995; Tittle, Theor. Criminol., 8, 2004, 395; Tittle, Recent Developments in Criminological Theory, Routledge, 2017). The second factor, locus of control, differentiates between people who think they control their own lives and those who feel that their lives control them (Rotter, Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80 (1, Whole No. 609), 1966). Finally, the third factor, self‐control, relates to people's ability to direct their behavior (Gottfredson & Hirschi, A general Theory of Crime, Stanford University, 1990). Five research hypotheses were examined: (1) the higher the internal locus of control, the lower the external locus of control – fate and others; (2) the higher the self‐control, the higher the internal locus of control/control ratio; (3) the greater the lack of control (i.e., the lower the control ratio), the greater the external locus of control; (4) the lower the self‐control, the higher the external locus of control/lack of control; (5) the higher the control ratio, the higher the internal locus of control. Questionnaires were completed by 215 undergraduate students from four different faculties from the same university, 53 males and 58 females studying psychology or social work (i.e., therapy‐oriented disciplines), 58 males and 46 females studying economics or law (i.e., non‐therapy‐oriented disciplines). The findings of the study reinforced all five hypotheses, thereby providing an additional layer of infrastructure for conducting the important mapping of various factors that are part of controllability. The results also enabled ties and connections to be made between these and additional factors, on the road to understanding, coping with and intervening in a range of human activities in general, and deviant behavior specifically.