The Relationship of Three Measures of Locus of Control to Environmental Activism

Assessed the adequacy of various locus of control measures for predicting environmental activism and willingness to engage in personal conservation and antipollution activities, examined the modifiability of locus of control under the pressure of a relevant sociopolitical event, and compared unidimensional vs multidimensional and generalized vs situation-specific representations of the locus of control construct. 50 activists, 51 nonactivists, and 53 posttest-only nonactivists were administered Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, H. Levenson's (1974) Tridimensional Locus of Control Scale, and the authors' Situation-Specific Internal, Powerful Others, and Chance Scales. Results indicate that locus of control was significantly associated with environmental activism and personal conservation attitudes but that locus of control feelings changed among activists after a disappointing political defeat. The situation-specific, multidimensional locus of control measure was superior to the generalized, unidimensional and generalized, multidimensional measures both in predicting behavior and attitudes and in responding to the sociopolitical event. (32 ref)