Relationship between Locus of Control and Chronological Age

A study was conducted to replicate and extend the findings of Lao (1974) which showed an increasing sense of personal efficacy from youth to adulthood, a stabilized sense of internal control through middle age, and no decrease in internality among elderly Ss. Current findings (100 college students, an occupational survey sample of 383) generally replicate these outcomes. Also, elderly Ss believed they were personally competent, and not at the mercy of powerful others or a capricious environment. Such findings question stereotypes of elderly as powerless and dependent on others to subsist in a threatening and unreliable environment.