THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NORMATIVE SCALE OF LOCUS OF CONTROL

The primary objective of the study was to construct a normative scale of locus of control for use with students and adults. A corollary of the study was to establish the personality, interest and cognitive correlates of locus of control. Conceptually the instrument is based on attribution theory and on social learning theory. The first edition of the Locus of Control Inventory (LCI) was applied to 356 first-year university students during 1994. A factor analysis of the 65 items of the inventory yielded three factors. The factors were interpreted as Autonomy, Internal Control and External Control. Three scales, corresponding to the three factors, were constructed, and yielded reliability coefficients of 0,80; 0,77 and 0,81 respectively. Following this the cognitive, interest and personality correlates of the LCI were determined. The implications of the findings are discussed.