Locus of Control

Among the various taxonomies that are employed to compare or differentiate cultures, one of the early dimensions suggested was Rotter’s conceptualization of locus of control (LOC). LOC is a way of looking at how individuals make decisions about their behavior based on their perception of positive or negative rewards guided by either (1) forces or factors around and outside one’s self (external LOC) or (2) self-guided inner motivations or attributes (internal LOC). Since its inception in the 1960s, LOC has become an important topic for scientific investigation and in some intercultural training designs. Cross-cultural research has shown that LOC has implications for understanding cultural differences, intercultural adaptation, and intercultural training. This entry describes the dynamics of how LOC was identified as a factor, how it ...