Assessment: What is Your Locus of Control?

1. A) In the long run, the bad things that happen to us are balanced by the good ones.
   B) Most misfortunes result from a lack of ability, ignorance, laziness, or all three.
2. A)  I have often found that what will happen will happen.
   B) Trusting to fate has never turned out as well for me as deciding to take a definite course of action.
3. A) Many unhappy things in people’s lives are partly due to bad luck.
   B) People’s misfortunes result from the mistakes they make.
4. A) Without the proper breaks, one cannot be an effective leader.
   B) Capable people who fail to become leaders have not exploited their opportunities.
5. A) I often feel I have little influence over what happens to me.
   B) I cannot believe that chance or luck plays a vital role in my life.
6. A) Most people don’t realize the extent to which accidental happenings control their lives.
   B) There is no such thing as “luck.”
7. A) Unfortunately, an individual’s worth often passes unrecognized, no matter how hard they try.
   B) In the long run, people get the respect they deserve.

Scoring

After completing the instrument, score it by assigning a zero (0) to any A you assigned and a one (1) to any B. Add up your total score, and compare it to the following norms:

• 1–3 = an external locus of control
• 4–5 = a balanced locus of control
• 6–7 = an internal locus of control

Source: Adapted from Julian B. Rotter, “Generalized Expectancies for Internal Versus External Control of Reinforcement.” Psychological Monographs, 80 (Whole No. 609, 1966), pp. 11–12.

References

This questionnaire is adapted from:

Chapter 2 Management Skills Application Exercises in Organizational Behaviour by Rice University, OpenStax, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, unless otherwise noted.

Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80 (609), pp. 11–12.