A locus of control measure as a teaching demonstration

268 students (M age = 20.0 yr., SD = 4.4; 68% women), randomly chosen from psychology classes, completed Rotter's I-E scale and Pettijohn's 1992 locus of control scale for class demonstration. The two sets of scores were similar but examination of reliability and validity indicated the latter was best used as a demonstration.     

A new measure of weight locus of control: the Dieting Beliefs Scale

This article describes the construction and preliminary validation of a new scale of weight locus of control, the Dieting Beliefs Scale. The 156-item scale demonstrated moderate internal consistency and high test-retest reliability in a sample of undergraduate women. Principal-components analysis suggested three factors. The three factors were interpretable and had distinct relations with a variety of weight-related and psychological variables. The results suggest that weight locus of control is a multidimensional construct, and they provide a possible explanation for the inconsistent findings concerning the relation between weight locus of control and dieting success. Implications for the study of dieting relapse and for the construction of treatment programs are discussed.     

Response bias on a locus of control measure by learning-disabled children

Four experiments were conducted to clarify the relationship between internal locus of control and achievement in learning-disabled and normal boys. The initial study yielded only a weak relationship between achievement and locus of control. Two subsequent experiments found differences on internality, and experiment 3 confirmed a pattern of second response choice bias for low-achieving boys. In Experiment 4 a significant interaction of diagnosis and test form resulted. Overall the tendency of learning-disabled and low-achieving boys to choose second response alternatives may have resulted in the popular but unsubstantiated notion that disabled children are less internally oriented than normal children.     

The merits and problems with the concept of projective identification

This paper reviewed the merits of and problems with the concept of projective identification. On the negative side, lack of universal meaning of the term was cited. Personal countertransference receives little regard, while an isomorphic reading of patient feelings may be used to gratify omnipotent symbiotic analyst and patient fantasies. On the positive side, the concept offers a framework that can lead to deeper understanding of difficult therapeutic situations. It helps the analyst process and contain distressing feelings and eschews interpretation that can be destructive to the analytic process. Proper use of projective identification should engage the patient's ego rather than foster passivity and merger wishes. Case material was presented which illustrated problems with and merits of the concept. Personal countertransference, especially therapeutic omnipotence, was shown to receive insufficient attention. The important role of complementarity in projective identification was illustrated in the treatment of depression, a disorder which can offer difficult treatment resistances. In conclusion, the concept should not be used as a justification for analyst omnipotence and avoidance of countertransference responsibility. The concept, however, can lead to a deepening of the analytic situation if it is used with caution and respect for the patient's separateness.     

A scale to measure Bowen's concept of emotional cutoff

This paper describes the Emotional Cut-off Scale (ECS), an instrument designed to measure Bowen's concept of emotional cutoff. The development of the scale and psychometric data from its use in three later studies are presented. The concept of emotional cut-off is critical to Bowen's broader theory. It is hoped that the ECS will allow researchers to begin to empirically examine propositions derived from Bowen's theory.     

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.     

A paradoxical prediction from locus of control

Individual differences in attribution have been little researched. Beliefs about locus of control have been taken to be stable and important differences between people. They may provide some of the background assumptions on which people base their explanations of actions, especially insofar as these explanations imply that the cause of an action was within the agent or his environment, and that the action was or was not under the agent's control. Respondents were therefore asked to fill in Rotter and Levenson locus of control questionnaires and to provide explanations or ask questions about several actions. It was hypothesized that internals would be inclined to go for explanations which were personal and implied high control, while externals would not. However, what emerged was the paradoxical finding that internals provided explanations which implied that the causes of the actions lay outside the agent, while externals provided ones which implied that the causes lay within. This result is discussed in terms of the difference between actions and outcomes, and the possibility that an important difference between people may be in the rigidity and simplicity of their beliefs about causality.     

Domain specific aspects of locus of control: Implications for modifying locus of control orientation

An examination was made to see if locus of control orientation with respect to intellectual achievement could be changed and to determine whether the change generalized to other types of situations. Goal-setting conferences were employed to improve LOC orientation for academic achievement situations among junior high school students. Significant differences were observed between the goal-setting conference group, the conference only group, and the control group on three measures of LOC orientation pertaining to academic situations: IAR⁺ and IAR- scores from the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire, plus the IA subscale of LOCITAD. No significant differences were recorded on the SA (LOC orientation for social achievement situations) and the PA (LOC orientation for physical achievement situations) of LOCITAD. High correlations were observed between Intellectual Achievement Responsibility scores and scores on the IA subscale of LOCITAD. More moderate correlations were observed between IAR scores and the other LOCITAD subscales. Results were interpreted as supporting domain-specific aspects of LOC. Results implied that educators can design programs to modify LOC orientation with less fear that a more internal orientation for academic situations will lead to maladaptive responses in other types of situations. Results also support the development of more precise measures of LOC.     

'Projective transidentifi cation': An extension of the concept of projective identifi cation

Questions about the concept of projective identifi cation still persist. The author presents the following hypotheses: Klein's traditional view and Bion's extension and revision of it can be thought of as occupying a continuum in reverse. He postulates that Bion's concept of communicative intersubjective projective identifi cation (which the author renames 'projective transidentifi cation') is primary and inclusive of Klein's earlier unconscious, omnipotent, intrapsychic mode but includes Bion's 'realistic' communicative mode as well. The author hypothesizes, consequently, that intersubjective projective identifi cation constitutes both the operation of an unconscious phantasy of omnipotent intrapsychic projective identifi cation solely within the internal world of the projecting subject-in addition to two other processes: conscious and/or preconscious modes of sensorimotor induction, which would include signaling and/or evocation or prompting gestures or techniques (mental, physical, verbal, posturing or priming) on the part of the projecting subject; followed by spontaneous empathic simulation in the receptive object of the subject's experience in which the receptive object is already inherently 'hard-wired' to be empathic with the prompting subject.     

The affective dimension of response elicitation data: a projective measure

In this research, the Rorschach Affective Ratio, a measure for frequency of response elicitation, was used to examine the affective dimension of response elicitation data. The purpose of this study was to apply the Rorschach Affective Ratio to an examination of the psychodynamic roots of political behavior. This measure compares the number of responses to colored cards, considered as emotional stimuli, with those revealed by the other (black and white) cards of the test. Israeli undergraduates (N = 26) completed a questionnaire composed of 20 questions about peace. Participants who were more supportive of the peace process in the Middle East were found to have a lower Affective Ratio than those who were less supportive. This result suggests that measurable affective aspects may be as important as cognitive aspects of response elicitation in understanding an individual's political attitudes.     

Psychotherapy and the locus of control

Underlying various actions of both the therapist and the patient are expectations about the measure to which an individual's experiences are the product of powerful external forces or of the person's own actions and decisions. While most of our anthropological theories support the notion that a person's experience is subject to an external locus of control, neither that view nor the opposite emphasizing freedom and autonomy is adequate for the therapeutic enterprise. THere are elements of truth in both positions that ned to be incorporated in therapeutic expectations if the enterprise is to proceed in an orderly fashion.     

Multidimensionality of the Nowicki-Strickland locus of control scale for adults

In order to investigate the dimensionality of the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale (ANS-IE), the responses of 120 undergraduate psychology majors were subjected to one principal components factor analysis using Kaiser's varimax criterion, Five meaningful factors emerged which accounted or 80.6% of the total variance. Results were discussed in terms of their similarity to other factor analyses using the children's version of this scale and to a factor analysis of the ANS-IE (chandler & Dugovics, 1977) which used a modified response format.