Nowicki characterized children's locus of control beliefs in terms of three factors: helplessness, luck, and achievement. This study investigated whether these factors are sufficiently consistent or invariant to be used in further analyses. (Author/DB)

Investigates infants' fear reactions in response to a potentially frightening toy as a function of their having control, or not having control, over the toy's movements. Subjects tested were 24 boys and 24 girls, age 12 to 13 months. (Author/SS)

Test results on the effects of achievement outcome on causal attributions were determined using a stabilometer performance as the criterion task. (JD)

Extends the locus of control theory by distinguishing situation effects across three types of internal locus of control: more internal for success than failure, more internal for failure than success, equally internal for success and failure. (Author/RL)

The study examined the attribution of responsibility of 34 students with an internal or external locus of control following success or failure feedback on a communication task. Results indicated externals attribute more responsibility to impersonal external sources than do internals. The importance of attributional processes for counseling is…

Forty-four third graders were given a two-choice conceptual discrimination learning task. The two major factors were (1) four treatment groups varying at the extremes on two personality measures, approval motivation and locus of control and (2) sex. (MS)

Locus of control within the community was the most important factor in the success of community education in an inner-city neighborhood. Influences on locus of control were individual readiness to assume leadership, processes that allowed lifelong learning to flourish, and the presence of leadership characteristics among community service…

An Australian survey (n=1,837) compared volunteers (22% of sample) to nonvolunteers. Volunteers were more likely to be socially active and engaged in activities building elements of social capital such as reciprocity and trust. More rural than metropolitan residents volunteered, but there were more similarities than differences between the groups.…

Compares a group of familial and non-familial child sex offenders on a number of relationship dimensions thought to be important in explaining offending. No statistically significant differences were found between these groups on measures of general empathy, intimacy and loneliness, although non-familial offenders were found to have higher levels…

A survey of 348 children aged 9-11 identified 184 victims of bullying. Girls felt less in control of frequent than infrequent bullying. More male than female victims felt in control. Victims of short-term bullying were significantly more likely than long-term victims to feel in control. (Contains 65 references.) (SK)

Examined attitudes of elderly acute-care hospital patients (N=264) concerning discharge planning. Respondents varied in their reactions to discharge planning and degree to which they exerted final control over decision. Perceived lack of control was associated with posthospital psychological distress for patients with high levels of internal locus…

Investigated effect of various factors related to infertility on women's (N=31) self-esteem and concomitant incidence of depression. Results support positive relationship between infertile women's self-esteem and their internal locus of control, self-esteem and subjective satisfaction with their social support, and general satisfaction with social…

Examined whether cognitive attributes differentiate depressed children from those with other psychiatric disorders. Findings from 108 child and adolescent psychiatric patients revealed that depressed children endorsed significantly lower self-esteem, more hopelessness, more externalized locus of control, and more depressive attributional style…

A structural model of the consequences of success attributions--derived from B. Weiner's attribution model--was tested using 208 first-term college students. Although the hypothesized model was rejected based on a chi-square, goodness-of-fit test, a specification search yielded a model that fit the data and was consistent with Weiner's theory.…

Investigated the impact of freshman orientation and locus of control on college adjustment in college freshmen (N=315). Found orientation had no effect; students characterized by internal locus of control were significantly better adjusted than were their external counterparts. (Author/ABL)