Developments and Social Problems

Research with the Locus of Control Construct, Volume 2: Developments and Social Problems seeks to contribute towards explaining the nomological network in which the locus of control construct is embedded. In studying the antecedents, concomitants, and far-reaching ramifications of the construct we can come to see its meaning more clearly. The book is organized into three parts. Part I pertains to one realm of locus of control research that is of signal interest to psychologists concerned with personality research and theory. If locus of control is an important predictor of behavior, then we should know something about its origins and the role it plays at different stages of the life span. The chapters in the first part aid in the development of such a life-span approach to locus of control research. Part II focuses on applications to two clinical-social problems: marital instability and alcoholism. Part III explores the use of locus of control as a moderator variable. Here, the response to particular situational constraints or milieu characteristics is evaluated vis-à-vis status on locus of control variables. In this way it becomes possible to speak of the specific effects of therapy or educational procedures upon persons who vary in personality characteristics such as locus of control, in much the way that the advocates of interactionism have always advised.