Life stress,social support,and locus of control during early adolescence: Interactive effects

Examined the relationships between negative events, locus of control, social support, and psychological adjustment in an early adolescent sample. Of interest were the potential stress-buffering effects of social support and the conjunctive effects of social support and locus of control upon adjustment. Family support was positively related to adjustment in several domains, whereas school support was only related to school competence. Peer support was positively related to peer competence and anxiety, and negatively related to school competence. Examination of the buffering hypothesis suggested that both family and school support served to moderate the relationship between negative events and school competence. Conjunctive effects were also detected in that school support buffered number of negative events best for those individuals with an internal locus of control for successes.     

Coping, locus of control, social support, and combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder: a prospective study

We examined the relations between coping, locus of control, and social support and combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The sample consisted of 262 Israeli soldiers who suffered a combat stress reaction episode during the 1982 Lebanon war and were followed 2 and 3 years after their participation in combat. Cross-sectional analyses revealed significant relations between locus of control, coping, and social support and PTSD at the two points of assessment. Changes in PTSD from Time 1 to Time 2 were also associated with changes in coping. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications of the findings.     

Hemisphericity, locus of control, and grade point average among middle and high school boys and girls

The Learning Style Questionnaire and the Children's Nowicki-Strickland I-E Control Scale were given to 128 boys and girls in Grades 8 and 11 in the La Grande (Oregon) School District. Each subject's previous year's grade point average was obtained to determine the relationships among hemisphericity, locus of control, and achievement. Also assessed, including interactions, were differences in hemisphericity, locus of control, and achievement by sex and grade. There was a significant relationship (of low practical value) between locus of control and GPA only. The difference in hemisphericity scores with respect to grade was significant.     

A new typology of health behaviours for personality-health predictions: The case of locus of control

Psychological investigations of the impact of personality on health behaviours have tended to emphasize fine distinctions among personality variables while failing to distinguish among different kinds of behaviours. For example, theoretical treatments of perceived personal control are quite sophisticated; in contrast, only one well-known analysis of health behaviours exists. We propose four categories of health-enhancing behaviours, which take into account contemporary views of the shift in health care from acute and physician-directed actions to long-term and patient-directed efforts. In addition, we suggest that perceived control (we emphasize locus of control because of its generality and parsimony) is an important predictor variable when combined with other factors common to current models of health behaviour.     

Academic locus of control, type A behavior, and college absenteeism

Responses from 40 women and 56 men to the Academic Locus of Control Scale and the Framingham Type A Scale were unrelated to each other but correlated .49 and .55 and -.32 and -.37, respectively, with absences from class. Elimination of illness-related absences raised the correlations.     

Self-evaluation,self-reinforcement,and locus of control

Two verbal recognition memory tests were administered to 24 internals and 24 externals. Subjects were required to self-evaluate (SE) their responses on the first test and both SE and self-reinforce (SR) on the second. There were no internal-external differences in performance accuracy on either task, but internals gave themselves consistently higher self-evaluations, administered more positive SR and less negative SR. There were no differences in the criteria used by the two groups for SR. SR differences appeared to be a function of the differential SE. It was suggested that external locus of control could be viewed as a self-regulation deficit. Externals are hypothesized to be unable to evaluate their own behavior adequately in the absence of external input and therefore do not make effective use of self-reinforcement. Discussion also made reference to the process of self-regulation.     

Assertiveness,self-actualization,and locus of control in women

An intervention program designed to facilitate psychological growth in middle-aged women was implemented and evaluated. Specifically, the study examined the program's effects on the participants in the areas of assertiveness, externality, and self-actualization at the end of the program and five months later. The results showed significant increases in assertiveness and self-actualization in the women at the posttest and five months later. There was no change in locus of control; most of the women were internally oriented at the pretest and remained the same over time.     

A mental-health locus of control scale

The purpose of this study was to develop and seek initial validation of a mental- health locus of control scale. Twenty-six mental-health professionals rated each of the 14 statements of a previously-designed mental-health service request form along a 5-point locus of control scale. Six of the 14 items met the study's criteria for inclusion in the mental-health locus of control scale. Discriminant validity of the scale was provided by a study demonstrating that psychotic patients were more external in their perceived locus of control than were a nonpsychotic patient comparison group. Other validation studies and research are suggested.     

Age differences in coping and locus of control: a study of managerial stress in Hong Kong.

The present study involved data collection from 3 samples of Hong Kong managers to examine mechanisms by which age would relate to work well-being. A total of 634 managers was drawn by random sampling and purposive sampling methods. The results showed that age was positively related to well-being (job satisfaction and mental well-being). Furthermore, older managers reported fewer sources of stress, better coping, and a more internal locus of control. Multiple regression analyses suggested that the relations of age with 2 well-being indicators can be attributed to various combinations of coping, work locus of control, sources of stress, managerial level, and organizational tenure.     

Levels, hierarchies, and the locus of control

The Bartlett--Craik view of human performance is restated; and particularly that it is organised at different levels. On that view, the lower levels are controlled by the upper but capable of functioning independently. Modern views of memory, language, and problem-solving are compared with this doctrine, and found to embody some of its virtues but not all. Fresh experiments are described, in which people take decisions about the running of a transportation system. The simplest control mechanism which will model their behaviour is a two-level adaptive controller.     

Desire for control, locus of control, and proneness to depression

Two personality constructs, desire for control and locus of control, were related to depression among college students. Measures of levels of depression, desire for control, and locus of control were taken from subjects. Approximately six months later 71% of these subjects returned a questionnaire concerning their experiences with depression during that six-month period. It was found that locus of control scores, particularly the extent to which subjects perceived that their lives were controlled by chance, were significantly related to the depression levels. It was also found that high desire for control subjects who held external perceptions of control were most likely to seek nonprofessional help for depression. In addition, high desire for control subjects who perceived their lives as generally controlled by chance were most likely to have suicidal thoughts. The results are interpreted in terms of a general style that may promote a proneness to depression for certain individuals.     

Type A personality, self-control, and vulnerability to stress

Type A behavior (hard-driving, competitive, time-urgent, hostile-irritable) has been linked to high stress levels and the risk of eventual cardiovascular problems (i.e., coronary heart disease, CHD). However, this pattern of behavior closely resembles the traditional masculine instrumental (goal-oriented) orientation, and, if kept within limits, may be viewed as adaptive in success-oriented, middle-class college students. Hypothetically then, Type A behavior may be displayed by a broad group of individuals, and only in those cases when it is allowed to reach extreme proportions is stress sufficient enough to confer risk. This article considers two lines of reasoning. Is greater self-control required for college women to be Type As, because it involves crossing into traditional male role behavior? Type A women displayed significantly better self-control then Type B women; the opposite result was disclosed for college men with Type As displaying poorer self-control than Type Bs. The question of whether risk-conferring Type A behavior would result from poorer self-control was answered in the affirmative. Self-control assumed moderator status; poorer self-control in both male and female Type As was associated with high levels of day-to-day stress relative to Type As with better self-control. Self-control did not influence stress level in Type Bs. This moderator effect suggests that only Type As who cannot contain their behavior within adaptive limits will be vulnerable to excessive stress and at risk for CHD.