The relationship between externality and general nonpsychotic psychiatric morbidity in normal males.

Abstract

There is good reason to believe that an external control orientation ( 5 ) and abnormal personality functioning are correlated. Externality appears to be associated with holding irrational values, mood disturbances, depression, and suicide potential. Also, schizophrenics score higher in the direction of externality. Personality correlates depict external scorers, in cogtrast to internal scorers, as relatively anxious, aggressive, dogmatic. less trustful, and more suspicious of others, lacking in confidence and insight, and having low need for social approval (2, 3, 4 ) . The Rotter ( 5 ) I-E Scale, employed as a general measure to ascertain the extent to which individuals perceive outcome as contingent upon behaviour, and the General Health Questionnaire ( I ) , a state-type questionnaire whose 60 items are considered to form the 'lowest common multiple' of symptoms encountered in the various differentiated syndromes of mental disorder, were administered to two 'normal,' yet distinct samples. In the first, subjects were 241 white, English male pupils, aged 16 yr., taken from five mixed comprehensive schools, set in essentially rural areas, with both academic and technical screams being represented. Subjects forming the second sample mere 144 male, predominately English, skilled and semi-skilled employees, facing compulsory redundancy, taken from four firms set in urban environments. The mean age was 32.9 yr. (SD = 11.7), median age 30 yr., with a range between 17 and 62 yr. Pearson produn-moment correlatioas of 0.19 ( p < .01) and 0.20 ( p < .02) were found between externality and a general, nonpsychotic psychiatric morbidity, in subjects forming the school and work groups, respectively. Mean I-E scores for the school and adult groups were: M = 12.22, SD = 3.53; M = 12.09, S D = 4.09, respectively. Mean GHQ-60 scores were 5.47 ( S D = 8.09) and 7.94 ( S D = 6.73) respectively. The external perception that outcome is unrelated to behaviour (and consequently typically perceived as being the result of luck, chance, fate, God, under the control of powerful others, or as unpredictable given the great complexity of the forces surrounding the individual) having been found to be positively associated wid! reported lack of mental well-being, is seen to provide further construct validation for both variables/scales. Mzny patients who suffer negative affect view reinforcements as independent of their responses. Conversely, the finding that an internal orientation (that outcome is contingent upon one's own actions and therefore perceived as being under personal control) is positively associated with mental well-being, provides clear support for the counselling, psychotherapeutic, and self-improvement group practices that attempt to engender an internal set in patients/clients, as parr of the healing/helping process.