Comparative Study on the Usage of Locus of Control between Men and Women

According to Julian B Rotter (1954), locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives. The locus of control is a relatively small part of an extensive personality theory given by Rotter called the Social Learning Theory. This theory consists of 2 components which divide the outcomes of our actions into internally controlled and externally controlled. This concept of internal-external (I-E), was first proposed by Rotter in 1966. People who are more relatively internal believe that they are responsible for their destiny, whereas people who are relatively more external believe that the positive and negative events that take place are determined by luck, chance or powerful people. Although it should be noted that locus of control is not a typological concept, people are neither internally nor externally controlled type.  Locus of control is a continuity and people can be ordered along that sequence. The behaviour of an individual in any situation is determined by many coinciding factors. To classify someone as internal or external is a typological error which ignores these factors. This study was aimed at understanding whether men and women differ in their approach towards taking control of their actions or passing it on to others. It was a comparative study between men and women aged 18-22 years. The sample consisted of 120 subjects; 60 men and 60 women. For this purpose Levenson’s scale for locus of control was used. There were 8 statements each for measuring Powerful Others (P), Chance Control (C), and Individual Control (I).  Men and women did not show a great difference when it came to the externality factors as the scores are equivalent to each other in powerful others and chance control. However, they showed a marginal difference when it came to internality factor as women scored higher in individual control. Thus, the results concluded that gender does not play a major role in determining the usage of internal and external locus of control.