Safety locus of control as a predictor of industrial accidents and injuries

This article describes the underlying theory, development, and initial validation of the Safety Locus of Control Scale. This paper-and-pencil inventory assesses levels of safety consciousness among employees. Initial research suggests that the inventory is a reliable predictor of employees' accidents, injuries, and driving safety. Potential uses for the inventory are discussed, and future research is suggested.This article is from a paper presented at the Annual Conference of Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior, Boston, Massachusetts, November 18–20, 1985.     

The relation between the locus of control construct and involvement in traffic accidents

We investigated the relation between the Rotter (1966) locus of control concept and involvement in automobile accidents. Subjects were 184 college students who completed a survey measuring accident involvement, the Rotter scale, and scales featuring beliefs and behaviors in traffic situations that would be expected from internally oriented persons. No significant relation was found between the Rotter scale and traffic accidents. Accident involvement was best explained by internal beliefs about accident control, and the reported number of near-miss accidents per week. A path diagram relating survey variables is included.     

Imitation and locus of control

This study dealt with the relationship between Locus of Control and imitation. Based on a review of the social influence literature, it was hypothesized that external individuals would imitate equally under a condition of model-reward and a condition of no model-reward. It was further hypothesized that internal subjects would demonstrate more imitation under a condition of model-reward than under the condition of no model-reward. Male college students were classified as internal or external on the basis of their scores on the Locus of Control Scale. Internals imitated a rewarded model significantly more than a nonrewarded model. Externals imitated both models equally and at a rate comparable to internals who observed a rewarded model. Subject ratings of model competence were also positively related to imitation among internals but not among externals. The results are interpreted as offering support for the general notion of the effect of observer characteristics on imitation.     

Handedness and locus of control

Groups of 15 left-, 15 mixed-, and 39 right-handers were tested with Rotter's Locus of Control Scale. Contrary to prediction, it was found that both left- and right-handers scored significantly higher, i.e., were more externally controlled, than mixed-handers. Primarily these data suggest a complex relationship between handedness and personality and they serve to reinforce the need to include mixed-handers in research on handedness.     

Geographic mobility and locus of control

Migrants and nonmigrants are often alleged to differ on numerous psychological traits; little empirical analysis, however, has examined this possibility. This study examined the hypothesis that geographic mobility is associated with locus of control, a key dimension of the self-concept. No relationships between these variables were uncovered for a national sample of older white men.     

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.     

Relationships between locus of control and anxiety

Reviews findings on the relationships between locus of control and anxiety and examines these relationships for three types of anxiety measures; general trait anxiety, situation specific trait anxiety, and state anxiety. In general, findings support the existence of meaningful relationships between greater externality and higher levels of both general trait anxiety and test anxiety. It was suggested that the relation between locus of control and state anxiety is a function of the situational context in which state anxiety is measured.     

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.     

Health locus of control of joggers and nonexercisers

To gain a better understanding of why some people engage in regular leisure-time physical exercise while others remain sedentary, the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control scale was distributed to 123 younger joggers and 93 nonexercisers. Analysis of the responses indicated that the joggers scored significantly higher on the internal subscale than did the nonexercisers. No significant differences were found on the Chance and Powerful Others subscales. The disparity of these results from those of other studies of the relationship between locus of control and exercise suggest that an exercise specific locus of control scale needs to be developed. The confound of age with exercise and locus of control requires clarification.     

Parental control in child rearing and multidimensional locus of control.

272 French-Canadian adolescent boys and 286 girls took part in a study of the association between parental control in child-rearing and Levenson's locus of control dimensions. Analysis showed relations between parental control and the two external dimensions but not with the internal one. Age and gender did not contribute to the various relationships.     

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.     

Hostility and locus of control in South Africa

Previous research has quite consistently shown a significant positive correlation between external locus of control and the motor subscales of the Buss-Durkee (1957) Hostility Inventory. Moreover, research in the U.S.A. has tended to show that minorities (e.g. blacks) are more externally oriented than whites, although this has not been supported in South African research (Rajab and Ramkissoon, 1979) using blacks and English-speaking whites. The present study investigated the relationship between locus of control and hostility among Indians and Afrikaans-speaking whites in South Africa. The results showed Afrikaners to be more externally controlled than Indians and the association between hostility and externality to hold for Indians only. The findings are discussed in the light of South Africa's unique socio-cultural and political make-up.