Locus of Control and Chinese College Students

The cross-cultural feasibility of the internality-externality (I-E) construct was examined by studying 517 male and female Chinese college students in Taiwan. Levenson's IPC (Internality, Powerful Others, and Chance) Scales were used to correlate various factors concerning the background, performance, and expectancy areas. Results indicated that: (1) compared to females, Chinese males felt they had more control over their lives on the general internality factor; (2) the relationships among the various components of the l-E presented the same pattern for the Chinese as they did for Americans; and (3) I-E was found to relate to many other important variables for the Chinese. These findings were similar to previous findings in the United States and some other countries, indicating that l-E seems to be a potentially meaningful variable across cultures, while some cultural specific characteristics were also unveiled. Future research should be directed at testing I-E in still other cultures and looking further into the dynamics, the uses, and limitations of the l-E construct for the Chinese.