Locus of control can influence

Summary of studies examining outcomes for GLM-informed interventions on locus of control orientation. In a United Kingdom sample of males convicted of sexual offending, Barnett et al. This change was also noted in other areas of socio-affective functioning e.

In another example, Gannon et al. In another study, Gannon et al. A battery of psychometric assessments was completed pre and post treatment and at 3-month follow-up, which assessed a range of factors associated with deliberate firesetting, including locus of control orientation.

Gannon et al. In addition to treatment evaluation studies, there has also been some qualitative research exploring agency, the GLM, and the process of desisting from further offending. Barnao et al. Following this, Barnao et al. However, an increased sense of agency was associated with perceived change post treatment in three out of five participants.

Features of GLM treatment such as shared decision-making, transparent communication, progress toward personal goals, and self-determination e. Within these themes, the importance of autonomy, along with relatedness, and competence, were highlighted. In terms of autonomy, those desisting from offending had a belief in their own ability to control their behavior and saw this as a personal choice, rather than being imposed on them by others.

For this group, it became clear that developing an internal locus of control was a critical part of the desistance process Wainwright and Nee, It is also important to note that there has been some research that has found little or no association between GLM-informed rehabilitation and changes in locus of control orientation.

For example, Harkins et al. Harkins et al. In another study, Tyler et al. Tyler et al. Justice-involved individuals often present with an externally oriented locus of control that has been associated with a range of issues including well-known correlates of offending, lower levels of motivation and engagement with treatment, and poorer treatment outcomes i. Locus of control is related to the human good of agency or autonomy and is viewed as one of the needs that all individuals prioritize.

Justice-involved individuals often lack the relevant internal and external capacities to achieve personal agency. For individuals with low levels of personal agency, or an externally oriented locus of control, strengths-based interventions such as the GLM promote the development of agency using a whole-program approach from their aims and orientation through assessment and treatment while also supporting individuals to develop the skills to continue to live a personally fulfilling life.

Early research evaluating the effectiveness of GLM-consistent programs suggests that these have the potential to positively reorient agency and locus of control within forensic environments. Given forensic settings may provide experiences that further reinforce an external locus of control, GLM-informed interventions represent a potentially promising way to overcome these barriers and to support locus of control reorientation within this environment.

However, despite promising early findings, research evaluating the effectiveness of strengths-based interventions, and more specifically their ability to reorient locus of control, is still very much in its infancy.

Therefore, further research is needed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn about the extent to which such approaches may promote personal agency and an internal locus of control above that of traditional risk avoidant approaches. All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Goodstein, L. Personal control and inmate adjustment to prison. Criminology 22, — Griffore, R. Groh, T. Locus of control within subgroups in a correctional population. Halliday, C. Hanson, K. Improving risk assessments for sex offenders: a comparison of three actuarial scales.

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Biofeedback vs video games: effects on impulsivity, locus of control, and self-concept with incarcerated juveniles. Kelley, T. At-risk youth and locus of control: do they really see a choice? Court J. Kliewer, W. Locus of control and self-esteem as moderators of stressor-symptom relations in children and adolescents. Child Psychol. Langlands, R. Applying the good lives model to perpetrators of domestic violence. Change 26, — It is a great example of a generalized expectancy related to problem solving, a strategy which applies to a wide variety of situations.

In Rotter distributed an article in Psychological Monographs which summed up around a decade of extensive research by Rotter and his understudies , with most of this work actually never being published beforehand.

It is speculated that Locus of Control may have come beforehand, as a term coined by a psychologist by the name of Alfred Adler. The evidence for this is lacking, however, so the main bulk of credit for the concept lies in Rotter and his understudies' early works. One of these understudies was William H. After attempting this three times and scoring all three, the player might come to believe that due to the fact the player has been continuously successful if they continue to shoot, they will continue to score.

To give an example of this, picture someone who is at a casino. This individual places a bet on the ball landing on a red number in the roulette wheel. After three spins of the wheel, the ball has landed once in a red number, once in a black number, and finally once in a green number. The individual will hopefully most likely come to the conclusion that the result of the spin is independent of the last result, with each individual spin being a stand-alone event.

In other words, the distinction lies in whether the cause is internal or external; those who have faith in their own abilities will look towards an internal cause and adapt a typical expectancy shift while those who attribute their results to external causes will most likely exhibit an atypical expectancy shift.

Rotter has made strides in this area of his research, covering this phenomenon in multiple works He has talked about issues and confusions in others' utilization of the interior versus-outer build; explaining how misconceptions and miscommunication have led people to mistake Locus of Control for other psychological terms.

There are multiple ways to measure locus of control, but by far the most widely used questionnaire is the item plus six filler items , forced-choice scale of Rotter This questionnaire first came into the scene in and is arguably still the best way to determine locus of control in the present day.

This does not mean that this is the only popular questionnaire. Another example is Bialer's item scale for children, which actually even predates Rotter's work. One of his understudies again, William H. James was actually responsible for developing one of the earliest psychometric scales to assess locus of control for his unpublished doctoral dissertation, supervised by Rotter at Ohio State University. As just mentioned, however, the work remains unpublished yet it is an example of just how much influence Rotter and his students have over the origins of the term.

Many measures of locus of control have appeared since Rotter's scale. These vary from the original that predate Rotter's own original designs to locus of controls designed specifically for groups - like children such as the Stanford Preschool Internal-External Scale for three- to six-year-olds.

According to the data analyzed by Furnham and Steele they suggest that the most reliable, valid questionnaire for adults is The Duttweiler Internal Control Index ICI might be the better scale.

Right off the bat, an advantage these scales have is that they address perceived problems with the Rotter scales. These issues include adjusting the forced-choice format, removing the susceptibility to social desirability and heterogeneity as indicated by factor analysis , and the natural improvements that come from developing something almost 30 years after the Rotter scales.

One important thing to note is that while other scales existed in besides the Duttweiler scales to measure locus of control, they all appear to fall victim to the same problems that the Rotter scales never originally addressed.

The main difference is the removal of the forced-choice format used on Rotter's scale. Before, individuals would simply have to assert whether the assertion asked by the scale was true or false, with Duttweiler's item ICI which utilizes a Likert-type scale people must state whether they would rarely, occasionally, sometimes, frequently or usually behave as specified in each of 28 statements, making it much more adaptable than the original Rotter scales to actual human nature.

The ICI gives individuals much more choice by assessing variables pertinent to internal locus. These include but are not limited to cognitive processing, resistance to social influence, self-reliance, autonomy, delay of gratification.

Small validation studies have indicated that the scale had good internal consistency reliability a Cronbach's alpha of 0. The field most associated with locus of control is health psychology, mainly because the original scales to measure locus of control originated in the health domain of psychology.

These first scales were originally reviewed and approved by Furnham and Steele in ; they have since remained an essential part of health and other branches of psychology.

Those that belong to the last group are almost impossible to deal with, given that they have a firm belief that nothing they will do can either change nor avert what is going to happen either way. The scales reviewed by Furnham and Steele have directly contributed to multiple areas in health psychology. Both these scales tackled the issue of obesity, and shed light on how it affects different types of individuals.

These scales do not limit themselves only to the physical aspects of individuals, take for example Wood and Letak's Mental health locus of control scale. These scales try to measure the stages of health and depression that an individual is currently in, there's even a scale meant for measuring cancer and cancer-like symptoms the Cancer Locus of Control Scale of Pruyn et al.

Perhaps the most important link that locus of control has to health psychology is Claire Bradley's work, which links locus of control to the management of diabetes mellitus. This empirical data was reviewed by Norman and Bennet and they note that the data collected on whether certain health-related behaviors are related to internal health locus of control is at best ambiguous. For example, they point out that according to certain studies locus of control was found to be linked with increased exercise, but also note how other studies have mentioned that the impact that exercise has on locus of control is either minimal or non-existent.

Activities such as jogging or running have long since been dismissed as lone factors for influencing any sort of command in one's locus of control. This ambiguity goes on in the study, with data on the relationship between internal health locus of control and other health-related behaviors also being suspicious. For example, a person who loses a sports game may feel depressed or anxious if they have a strong internal locus of control. If this person thinks, "I'm bad at sports and I don't try hard enough," they might allow the loss to affect their self-image and feel stressed in future games.

However, if this person takes an external focus during such situations "We were unlucky to get matched with such a strong team," or "The sun was in my eyes! Where does your locus of control fall on the continuum? Read through the statements below and select the set that best describes your outlook on life. If the statements above best reflect your view on life, then you probably tend to have an external locus of control.

If the statements above best reflect your outlook on life, then you most likely have an internal locus of control. Your locus of control can have a major impact on your life, from how you cope with stress to your motivation to take charge of your life.

In many cases, having an internal locus of control can be a good thing. It means that you believe that your own actions have an impact. If you tend to have more of an external locus of control, you might find it helpful to start actively trying to change how you view situations and events.

Rather than viewing yourself as simply a passive bystander who is caught up in the flow of life, think about actions you can take that will have an impact on the outcome.

Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Parental antecedents of locus of control of reinforcement: A qualitative review. Front Psychol. Rotter JB. General principles for a social learning framework of personality study. In: J. Rotter, ed. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychol Monogr.

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