Rotter's Locus of Control Scale

What it measures

Measures the general belief about whether reinforcements (rewards and punishments) are controlled by one's own behaviour (internal locus of control) or by outside forces such as luck, fate, or powerful others (external locus of control). One of the most influential personality constructs in psychology, predicting health behaviour, academic achievement, political participation, consumer decision-making, and occupational outcomes. Internals take more preventive health action, engage in more information search before purchase decisions, show higher financial planning behaviour, and are more resistant to persuasion attempts that rely on authority or social proof. The IE Scale is the foundational measure of this construct with over 50 years of validation.

Representative items

• (A) Many of the unhappy things in people's lives are partly due to bad luck. / (B) People's misfortunes result from the mistakes they make. (B = Internal)
• (A) Becoming a success is a matter of hard work; luck has little or nothing to do with it. / (B) Getting a good job depends mainly on being in the right place at the right time. (A = Internal)
• (A) What happens to me is my own doing. / (B) Sometimes I feel that I don't have enough control over the direction my life is taking. (A = Internal)

Citation

Rotter, J.B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80(1), 1–28.