Assessment, Statistics, and Research

  Considering Locus of Control 2024 Assessment name: Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale Scale overview: Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale is a 29-item measure of beliefs about external or internal sources of influence on one’s life. The scale is also referred to as LCS. Author: Julian Rotter Response Type: Forced choice between two items. Scale items: See the items at the bottom of this post. Psychometric properties: A review of internal consistency values from several studies revealed a mean of .663 and test-retest mean of .663 (Huizing, 2015). Klockars, A. J., & Varnum, S. W. (1975) found six factors suggesting the scale measures multiple dimensions. Lange and Tiggermann (2010) reported test-retest reliability of .61 in their sample.   Comment : Some researchers have questioned the structure of the original scale in terms of its ability to clearly measure either internal or external locus of control. Additional measures have been developed including a measure

    Assessment Instrument:   Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) The EAR is a scientific instrument for recording short snippets of ambient sounds (e.g., 30 sec every 12.5 min). Participants activate an app or wear a device while the recorder creates audio files. Inventor: The EAR was developed by psychological scientist Matthais Mehl. DATA : The raw data are acoustic files. Data Analyses: Researchers can listen to the data or read a transcript to search for targeted data. For example, a researcher could search for evidence of humility or anger. Researchers could use a coding strategy to identify multiple target sounds, words, or phrases. The data could be analyzed for social environmental data using the Social Environment Coding of Sound Inventory (SECSI; Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003). Researchers can submit the data for qualitative or quantitative text analysis. Examples of participant EAR data (See Tackman & Mehl, 2003.) 1. Location of the person (e.g.,