title: The IE-4: Construction and Validation of a Short Scale for the Assessment of Locus of Control
Creators: name: Kovaleva, Anastassiya
Publisher: name: SSOAR -   GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: 10105 Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
subject: survey research
subject: measurement instrument
subject: scale construction
subject: personality traits
subject: behavior
subject: psychometrics
subject: social factors
subject: survey
subject: demographic factors
subject: psychological factors
subject: locus of control
subject: expectation

description: Kontrollüberzeugung beschreibt eine generalisierte Erwartung, ob die Verhaltensergebnisse von einer Person selbst kontrolliert werden oder von Kräften außerhalb der persönlichen Kontrolle. Soziowissenschaftliche und psychologische Studien zeigten über Jahrzehnte, dass Kontrollüberzeugung mit physischem und mentalem Wohlbefinden, berufsbezogenem Verhalten, allgemeiner Gesundheit und gesundem Altwerden sowie Umgang mit Verlust von Arbeit korreliert.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung und Validierung einer Vier-Item-Skala zur Messung von Kontrollüberzeugung (die Skala Internale-Externale-Kontrollüberzeugung-4, IE-4). Die IE-4 ist für den Einsatz unter engen zeitlichen Bedingungen, z.B. in Survey-Forschungen, gut geeignet. Die Entwicklung und Validierung der IE-4 basieren auf drei Studien. Die stabile faktorielle Struktur und Konstruktvalidität der Skala werden belegt. Abschließend werden psychometrischen Kennwerte und Kürze der Skala diskutiert.
description: Locus of control defines a personal belief about whether outcomes of behavior are
determined by one’s actions or by forces outside one’s control.
This personality trait has been shown to have an impact on human behavior
across a wide spectrum of social situations. Due to its link to education, general
health, overall life satisfaction and other important variables of social research
issues, it is interesting not only for psychological but also for sociological research
questions.
Locus of control is often used in survey research to predict such complex phenomena
as social commitment, political participation, unemployment, vocational
behavior, well-being or health issues, etc. However, the established German scales
for locus of control comprise between twenty and thirty items or more. Given the
strict time constraints to which social surveys are subject, such lengthy assessment
tools are generally unsuitable for survey research. Hence, surveys such as the German
Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) use self-developed scales to assess locus of
control. However, such self-developed scales are not always thoroughly validated.
Therefore, a new standardized and validated short scale measure is called for that
caters for research settings with strict time constraints.
This thesis addresses this need. Taking into consideration the theoretical background
of the established scales assessing locus of control and the empirical results
of the scales used in German surveys, a standardized measure – the four-item scale
for the assessmet of locus of control (IE-4) ‑ was constructed. The thesis describes
the construction of the IE-4 with the help of a pilot study (N=201) and cognitive
interviews, and its validation in an extended sample (N=539). The work concludes
with a discussion of the efficiency of the IE-4, i.e. its brevity and satisfactory psychometric
properties.
description: GESIS-Schriftenreihe, 9, 130 S.