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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children; Locus of control; Juvenile delinquents -- Psychology;

Abstract

Locus of control refers to the degree to which individuals believe they are responsible for the outcomes of their behavior. Internally controlled people believe that they have some control over their successes or failures, whereas externally controlled people believe that their success or failure is a result of fate, luck, or circumstance. It is suggested that children with an internal locus of control are more aware of their environment, and the relationship between their behavior and achievement. Integral to Wechsler's definition of intelligence is the capacity to understand and cope with one's environment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between locus of control and intelligence. The subjects included 57 adolescent males who were court-ordered to undergo a 30-day evaluation at the State Training School for boys in Eldora, Iowa. Locus of control as measured by a modified form of the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) profile scores were obtained from the students' files. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient revealed correlations consistently in the same direction with higher WISC-R scores associated with a lower locus of control. Although the results do not reveal strong correlations between locus of control and intelligence, the consistent inverse correlations suggest that there is a relationship between the two variables.

Year of Submission

1990

Degree Name

Specialist in Education

Department

Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations

First Advisor

Ralph Scott

Second Advisor

Charles V. L. Dedrick

Third Advisor

James McCullagh

Comments

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Date Original

1990

Object Description

1 PDF file (36 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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