Cross-Cultural Locus of Control Studies: Experiment and Critique

Abstract

Over 30 cross-cultural locus of control studies were reviewed which yielded inconsistent findings. It is argued that this plethora of cross-cultural studies have neglected to match population groups sufficiently carefully and to consider the multidimensional nature of the concept, locus of control. The Rotter Locus of Control Scale was administered to three groups of South African nurses (African, European, Indian) who were carefully matched in terms of age, sex, education, occupation, homogeneity, living conditions and language competence, and considered to be functionally equivalent. Although no significant differences were found between the scores on these three groups, a factor analysis of each group's results indicated a different factor structure emerged for each group.