Correlates of the Just World Factor of Rotter's I-E Scale

Abstract

The 23 forced-choice items of Rotter's I-E Scale were converted into 46 Likert agree-disagree items. Intercorrelations of the 46 I-E items were subjected to a principal factor analysis. A varimax rotation yielded four subscales: Belief in a difficult world, a just world, a politically responsive world, and a predictable world. Most items with high loadings on the just world factor had low loadings on the first principal factor. Further, a correlational study showed that the just world factor scores were negatively related to authoritarianism, dogmatism, intolerance of ambiguity, and attribution of blame to women for their inferior state (internals scored higher on all four measures). Except for one positive correlation between the difficult world factor scores and dogmatism, (internals scored lower on dogmatism), the three other I-E factors were not related to any of the four measures. Contrary to predictions, just world factor scores were not related to a low level of political activity. The correlational study suggests that the I-E just world items are unrelated to, and perhaps inconsistent with the remaining I-E items and should be omitted from the I-E scale.