Internal versus External Control of Defendants Studied in a Probation Setting

Abstract

The Rotter I-E Scale was given to 84 defendants referred from the Lucas County Common Pleas Court; a revision of the same scale (revised for lower educational level) was given to 76 similar defendants. Seven variables were analyzed with the Internal- External variable to determine whether there was any significant relationship between them and the I-E variable. Multiple of fenses were significantly related to the Internal variable on the revised I-E Scale (an unexpected direction). Age approached significance in that almost four times more of the older de fendants scored higher on the Internal variable than the External variable on the revised I-E Scale (an unexpected direction). The original I-E Scale did not discriminate on any of the variables studied. The data suggest that as the defendants grow older, commit more offenses, they come into contact with social agen cies which teach Internal values, and respond with "institution alized" answers.

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