Locus Of Control Dimensions Research Articles

Locus of control dimensions among senior pharmacy students electing post-Pharm.D. residencies.

The locus of control dimensions among senior Pharm.D. students electing post-Pharm.D. residencies (N=15) are compared with first (N = 60) and second year (N = 55) Pharm.D. students, as well as with senior Pharm.D. students not electing residencies (N=14). Volunteer clinical faculty [hospital (N=27) and community (N = 23) pharmacy preceptors] and full-time clinical faculty (N = 22) are also compared. The Reid-Ware three-factor internal-external scale was completed by the study population. The dimensions measured were: self-control, social systems control, and fatalism. This study was undertaken to: 1. compare the locus of control dimensions among senior pharmacy students electing post-Pharm.D. residencies with senior pharmacy students not electing post-Pharm.D. residencies (and with other pharmacy students) and 2. compare the locus of control dimensions among senior pharmacy students electing and not electing post-Pharm. D. residencies (and with other pharmacy students) with their clinical, hospital, and community faculty to identify personality congruence (i.e., similarities, differences) which might facilitate the development of patient oriented-interactive behaviors necessary for clinical practice. Self-control (SC) was the major factor that generated the significant difference in the seven groups. The clinical (full-time) faculty group is significantly different from the student groups with the exception of the P-3, residency students. Over 50 percent of the P-3 residency group responded more like the faculty groups than like other students, with more P-3 residency students responding like clinical faculty than any other student or faculty group. The implication is that a similar personality profile exists in terms of internal/external control for the P-3 residency and full-time clinical faculty groups. Professors may have influenced, stimulated, or motivated those students most like themselves to enter a residency program. Based on the data, it would appear desirable to profile pharmacy students and give those who have a strong internal self-control factor encouragement to pursue post-graduate academic or residency programs and to retain as many of those individuals as possible in the areas of pharmacy that directly influence patient care and the pharmacist's role on the health care team.

The influence of a taped hypnotic induction treatment procedure on the recovery of surgery patients.

Abstract A study of 40 open heart surgery patients assigned to 1 of 2 equal size treatment groups sought to evaluate the efficacy and utility of a tape-recorded hypnotic induction procedure that preoperatively prepared patients for surgery. The dependent variables included daily blood pressure measurements and postsurgical outcome data pertaining to postoperative units of blood required, state/trait anxiety, and locus of control dimensions. Results of the study tended to provide some support for the tape-recorded hypnotic induction procedure in lessening state anxiety and in promoting a more self-directed attitude toward surgical recovery.

Locus of control and the ability to tolerate gratification delay: When it is better to be an external

An experiment was conducted to investigate the relationship between the locus of control orientation of fourth-grade children and delay frustration experienced in self-imposed and externally imposed delay situations. Time estimation was used as the index of delay frustration, with greater time estimates being interpreted as indicating greater frustration. In a self-imposed delay situation, external subjects estimated a 5-min delay to be longer than did internal subjects, while in an externally imposed delay situation, internal subjects estimated a 5-min delay to be longer than did external subjects. The implications of the findings for an understanding of both the locus of control dimension and delay behavior are discussed.

Locus of control as predictive of goal-directed behavior.

EEO Upward Mobility Program participants were compared with three different control groups along I-E locus of control dimensions. With this instrument and these Ss, no significant differences were found when participation in the program was used as an indicator of goal-directed behavior.

Multidimensionality of locus of control and self-esteem.

Fish and Kacabenick ( 1971) and Ryckman and Sherman ( 1973) investigated the relationship between Rotter's (1966) unidimensional, locus of control construct and selfesteem in college students. In both studies, students with higher self-esteem tended to be more internally oriented. Since recent research (Reid & Ware, 1973) has indicated that the locus of control construct is multidimensional rather than unidimensional, a newly devised measure by Levenson (1974) was used to examine the relationship between the various dimensions of locus of control tapped by her measure and self-esteem. Levenson's scale has three separate components: ( a ) a Personal Scale which assesses an individual's perceived personal control over events; ( b ) a Powerful-others Scale which measures the degree to which others control the person's reinforcers; and ( c ) a Chance Scale which measures the extent to which an individual believes his reinforcers occur randomly. It was expected that people with higher self-esteem would tend to be internally or~ented across all three dimensions. Levenson's scale and Janis and Field's (1959) Feelrngs of Inadequacy Scale were administered to 141 women in introductory psychology to check the correlations. The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) was also given. The data yielded small but significant correlations for all three locus of control dimensions and self-esteem, as expected. The partial rs with the minor effects of social desirability held consrant were as follows: Personal Control ( r = -.20, p < ,025). Powerful-others ( s = -.26. p < ,005 ) , and Chance ( r = -.16, p < .05 ) . The partial r for I-E scores summed across the three dimensions and self-esteem was -.30 ( p < ,005). For Personal Control, the mean was 36.01 ( S D = 5.76); for Powerful-others, the mean was 34.52 ( S D = 5.76); and for Chance, the mean was 32.80 ( S D = 5.34). The selfesteem mean was 63.83 ( S D = 14.04). Thus, female students with higher self-esteem tended to see themselves as exercising more personal control over events, as being more free from control by powerful others, and as living in environments where their reinforcers occur in a more highly predictable fashion than did students with lower self-esteem. These results support earlier findings about the relacionship between I-E and self-esteem and show, further, that locus of control as a tripartite (Levenson) construct is significantly associated with self-esteem.

Attitudes toward conflict with authority as a function of sex, I-E, and dogmatism.

This study was designed to evaluate the extent to which Ss' desirability judgments of MMPI “conflict with authority” items would vary as a function of sex and relevant personality variables. Women were more disapproving that men of statements reflecting rebellious attitudes and behavior. Rotter's internal-external locus of control dimension was unrelated to attitudes toward authority. Ss who were low in dogmatism expressed greater respect for authority than Ss who were high in dogmatism. These results highlight the paradoxical nature of the dogmatism variable and support the utility of desirability judgments as a measure of personality.

Internal-External Control as a Determinant of Academic Achievement

The aim of the present investigation was to examine the relationship between Rotter's (1966) internal-external control dimension (I-E) and academic achievement. Although no previous investigators have reported significant associations between these two variables (Eisenman & Platt, 1968), it seems a logical extension of the perceived locus of control dimension that internals would manifest more achievement-striving behavior than externals, who feel they have little control over their environment. Accordingly, it was predicted that internally controlled college students would obtain significantly higher quality point averages than their externally controlled counterparts. The I-E scale was administered to several sections of introductory psychology at Villanova University. From the total pool of Ss who responded to this questionnaire (N = 483), 31 males and 10 females who scored on the internal end of the scale (18 to 23) and 76 males and 22 females who scored on the external end (0 to 9) were selected. The measure of S's academic achievement was taken to be cumulative quality point average (QPA), retrieved for each S from the university's computer science center. Insofar as the over-all OPA means for males (2.48) and females (2.41) did not . . differ significantly, data were analyzed for sexes combined. Internals and externals were separately assigned to one of three a prior; QPA categories (3.00 to 4.00; 2.00 to 2.99; 1.00 to 1.99) and the resulting frequency data (I-E X QPA) yielded a x2 of 2.98 (df = 2, p < .250) indicating only marginal support for the prediction. Two distinct possibilities may account for the lack of relationship berween the I-E and academic achievement variables. First, and along the same lines as suggested by Rotter (1966), there may be an overabundance of college Ss who have arrived at an external view of the world as a defense against failure but who were initially highly competitive. Thus, externals would still maintain comparatively strong achievement motivauon in clearly structured competitive situations but defensively account for failure by externally controlled attitudes. Second, the I-E dimension is probably not generalizable across situations, and in the highly structured academic achievement situation there is probably more specificity determining QPA than in other kinds of competitive situations. In either event, subsequent research should attempt to clarify the interaction of personality factors and academic achievement.