Locus of control,field dependence and the conditions arousing objective vs subjective self-awareness

Observations of persons engaged in quasievaluative situations revealed that the greater amounts of body movement characterized as tension reducing were exhibited by persons holding internal control as opposed to external control expectancies. Conceptualizing situations as varying in the degree to which they allow one to become task involved (subjective self-awareness) or self-conscious (objective self-awareness) it was hypothesized that the latter would be more disruptive to internals, the former to externals. Body movement exhibited during introspection and personal reminiscence supported this hypothesis though no support was found in another task involving the completion of moral dilemma stories. In the latter task field dependent subjects proved to be more affected by self-awareness conditions, writing more normative stories when cues for objective self-awareness were more prominent.