Low Internal Control Research Articles

Stress demands on school administrators in Singapore

Abstract This study investigated the use of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) on school administrators in Singapore. The sample of 223 school administrators consisted of the top management group of principals and vice-principals and the middle management group of heads of department. The school administrators reported pressure at work, and consequently, higher levels of mental and physical ill health. They had high locus of control scores, indicating low internal control over their environment. However, they also reported greater use of coping strategies and higher job satisfaction. Psychometrically, the sub-scales of sources of pressure, job satisfaction, and mental and physical ill health were found to be reliable. The items of the scales of type A, locus of control and coping skills had to be re-factor analysed for the Singaporean sample. The new factors were found to have higher reliability. When the stress and job satisfaction levels of the principals/vice-principals and heads of department wer...

Perceived Control Over Memory Aging: Developmental and Intervention Perspectives

Age differences in control beliefs were examined for several domains, including intellectual aging and memory, with a sample of 200 adults (ages 20–89). There were no age differences in control beliefs for the interpersonal or political domains. For the domains of health and intellectual aging, however, the older adults had lower internal control and higher external control beliefs than young and middle‐aged adults. The implications of these control beliefs are considered in the context of memory aging and memory training programs. A program of research is described that involves teaching older adults memory strategies in conjunction with cognitive restructuring of beliefs about the controllability of memory. The goal of the program is to optimize memory performance and attitudes about memory, as well as to identify some of the self‐appraisal and motivational mechanisms involved in memory aging.

Locus of Control and Drinking Behavior in American Indian Alcoholics and Non-Alchoholics

Many investigators have attempted to determine whether alcoholics differ from non-alcoholics in their perceived locus of control. The present study examined the responses of alcoholic and non-alcoholic American Indian males and females on Levenson's Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale. Subjects were 80 American Indian males and 40 American Indian females. All subjects were members of either an eastern (Cherokee) or western (Cheyenne) Oklahoma tribe. Results indicate no significant differences between the Cherokee male alcoholic and non-alcoholic group. Cheyenne male alcoholics reported significantly lower internal control scores than did Cheyenne male non-alcoholics. Within the female sample, alcohol use and tribal membership showed a significant interaction with locus of control. These findings suggest that locus of control may be a potentially useful clinical construct in the development of treatment plans and therapeutic issues for American Indian patients who are alcoholics.

Individual and Situational Differences in Recovery from Bereavement: A Risk Group Identified

The Tübingen Longitudinal Study of Bereavement was designed to provide information on (a) health deterioration and recovery following bereavement, (b) risk factors in bereavement, and (c) selection and social desirability as potential biases in health findings in this type of research. A sample of widows and widowers were interviewed three times during the first two years following their loss. Measures of their health and well‐being were compared to those of a matched sample of married individuals. Data were also collected on the health status of some of the widowed who refused participation. The findings suggest the following conclusions: (1) Partner loss is associated with an increased level of depressive and somatic symptoms during the first six months, but the majority of bereaved gradually recover over the two‐year period. (2) Individuals with low internal control beliefs who have experienced an unexpected loss constitute a risk group of individuals who suffer most and recover least. (3) Due to selection, the impact of bereavement is likely to be underestimated for widowers and overestimated for widows. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Bulimia nervosa: sex role attitude, sex role behavior, and sex role related locus of control in bulimarexic women.

Thirty-four women with bulimia nervosa and 34 women without bulimarexic symptoms (but matched for age, weight, deviance from ideal weight, and educational status) were compared as to how liberated their attitude towards the woman's role in society (= their sex role attitude, SRA) and their actual own behavior as females (= their sex role behavior, SRB) were. The degree to which their general attitude towards sex role and their own sex role behavior differed from each other was also investigated. Experimental and control group were also compared concerning their sex role related locus of control (SRLC). SRA and SRB were significantly less liberated in the bulimarexic group than in the control group. In addition, the bulimarexic group showed a wide gap between their general attitude (SRA) and actual behavior (SRB) as to the degree of liberation. No such discrepancy was found in the control subjects. The sex related locus of control data showed that bulimarexic women had significantly higher external and fatalistic control, and lower internal control than the comparison subjects.