Perception of Internal-External Control in Ideal and Non-Ideal Others as a Function of One's Own I-E Score 1

Abstract

Ss who had previously completed Rotter's (1966) I-E scale completed it twice more, once for the “ideal type of person” and once for the “non-ideal type of person.” When Ss were divided into two groups on the basis of own I-E scores, Internals rated the ideal other as strongly internal and the non-ideal other as strongly external. The responses of Externals paralleled those of Internals. Since previous research (Hjelle, 1971) has shown that internal choices on the I-E scale are more socially desirable, the present results taken together with those of Hannah (1973) suggest that perhaps Internals are overly sensitive to this social desirability factor in the items of the I-E scale. Two lines of future research are suggested.