Locus of Control in Students From Japan and the United States: Dimensions and Levels of Response

Rotter's (1966) I-E scale was administered to male and female university students in Japan and the United States.As predicted, students from Japan scored in a more external direction than students from the United States.The responses were cluster analyzed, revealing the existence of two reliable clusters in each sub-group.In accordance with previous research, these clusters seemed to tap dimensions of generalized personal control and system modifiabiIity.This study was designed to compare the responses of students in Japan and the United States to Rotter's I-E scale (Rotter, 1966).This scale is a forced choice questionnaire designed to assess whether an individual considers himself or external events as determining his behavior.Traditionally, Japan has been regarded as a "vertical" society (Nakane, 1970), with great importance attached to group solidarity, deference to all forms of authority, and loyalty to tradition (Dore, 1958).Since the Second World War, however, Japan has been rapidly changing.Wealth is spiralling, access to higher education is widening, and a Japanese form of democracy has replaced a political system dominated by the military.In such a period of change, attitudes towards locus of control would be of interest particularly when compared to a culture like that of the United States with its different ideology regarding freedom.Despite recent changes, it is hypothesized that Japanese students will show more externality of response than students from the United States.Although Rotter (1966) presented evidence that his scale was unidimensional, recent studies have shown that presence of two and sometimes three, factors (Gurin, Gurin, Lao Minton, 1972; Mirels, 1970).These results generally point to a distinction between the control one has over one's own life ("Generalized Personal Control") and the control one has over the larger social and political system ("System Modifiability").These two or three factors were obtained from students and job trainees in the United States and Canada.In these countries, the distinction between "System Modifiability" and "Generalized Personal Control" may be more prominent than in cultures with a different political and social tradition.This study, therefore, attempts to replicate previous findings with students from the United States and to assess the dimensionality of Rotter's (1966) I-E scale with Japanese students.