Annotated Links
Designing Your Own Workspace Improves Health, Happiness and Productivity Employees who have control over the design and layout of their workspace are not only happier and healthier -- they're also up to 32% more productive according to research by Craig Knight at the University of Exeter and summarized in this article from Science Daily, September 8, 2010.
What is Locus of Control? by James Neill, Centre for Applied Psychology at the University of Canberra, Australia.
Social Learning Theory of Julian Rotter Jack Mearns at the University of California at Fullerton provides this overview of Rotter and Social Learning Theory. Includes biography, bibliography, and theory, including the predictive BP = f(E & RV) formula.
Assignments, Exercises, and Activities
Psychology Labs: Motivation: What is your Locus of Control Marcia Wehr at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida, has put together this extensive on-line course on Personality and Personal Growth. In this lab, students do online research on motivation and take a measure of locus of control.
Electronic Texts
Examples and Illustrations
Lecture Notes
Lecture Outline including exercises for introducing the concept of Locus of Control, by James Neill, Centre for Applied Psychology at the University of Canberra, Australia.
Slide Presentations
Tests, Measures, and Scales
Desirability of Control Scale From Burger, J. M., & Cooper, H. M. (1979). The desirability of control. Motivation and Emotion, 3, 381‑393, this 20-item scales measures individual differences in the general desire for control over events in one's life. Opens in Microsoft Word (doc) format. See Burger & Cooper (1979). Opens in PDF format.
Health Locus of Control scale and theory based on the theories of Julian Rotter. From Barbara S. Wallston, Kenneth A. Wallston, Gordon D. Kaplan, and Shirley A. Maides (1976). See for background information.
Locus of Control Here is a link to the 29-item Locus of Control Scale by Julian Rotter. The site includes a scoring key and description of locus of control.
On-line Locus of Control Scale Here is a link to the 13-item Locus of Control Scale by Julian Rotter. This version provides a total score and discusses what high or low scores mean, but does not include a scoring key.
Locus of Control and Attributional Styles Test Discovery Health presents this online version of a 10-item locus of control scale with scoring and feedback. However, the real fun begins when you are asked to take the 47-item long version including scales measuring optimistic and pessimistic explanatory style, the three dimensions of internal-external, stable-unstable, global-specific, career and academic locus of control, belief in luck, health locus of control and more. All scales are scored automatically and feedback is provided.
Audio and Video
Control and Culture: Sheena Iyengar, Psycho-Economist On the Art of Choosing For Americans, choosing is a way of asserting our individuality, while in other cultures deferring to the choices of respected others is a way of creating community and fostering harmony. Her her talk about her work on choice, locus of control, and culture, including the famous 24 varieties of jam study, in this TED talk. (Posted July 2010. Duration: 24:05)