Locus of Control Scale

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 12, 2017

Last Modified: January 07, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a computerized version of the Rotter's Locus of Control Scale as published in:

Rotter, J.B. (1966). "Generalized expectancies of internal versus external control of reinforcements". Psychological Monographs, 80, 1-18.

Duration

5 minutes

Overview

23 2-FC questions regarding locus of control (external vs. internal) and 6 filler questions

Instructions

main instructions were taken from Rotter (1966) and adapted to the computer;
edit under section Editable Parameters

Scoring

23 2-FC questions regarding locus of control and 6 filler questions
- the total score is the number of external choices
- percentiles calculated based on data published by Rotter (1966) (gender-specific)

Summary Data

File Name: locusofcontrolscale_summary.iqdat' (Inquisit Lab: one data file per participant)

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
textbox.age.response Contains the response to the age question (if answered)
radioButtons.gender.response Contains the response to the gender question (if answered)
ieScore Contains the total IE score = number of EXTERNAL choices
ieScorePercentile Contains the percentile (see Rotter, 1966, Appendix B, Table B1, percentiles calculated across male/female frequency)
ieScorePercentileGender Contains the percentile by gender (see Rotter, 1966, Appendix B, Table B1) if gender is known (otherwise => "not determined")

Raw Data

File Name: locusofcontrolscale.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject, group, session With the current subject/groupnumber/session id
build Inquisit version number
q*_response Response given (in assigned values)
Scale: 0 (for internal choice) - 1 (for external choice)
external choice can be either a) or b)
q*_latency How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular
question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
pageInstructions The initial instructions presented