Scientific journal

Advances in current natural sciences

ISSN 1681-7494

"Перечень" ВАК

ИФ РИНЦ = 0,775

Locus of control is a theory dealing with the extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them. It is one of the personal concepts which are most thoroughly examined in the cross-cultural studies [1, p.59]. This concept was brought to light in the 1950′s by Julian Rotter, who suggested that people differ in the extent to which they tend to believe that their behavior and the pattern of interaction with the environment and relationships with others are within their own control. There are two extreme types of such localization: internal and external. In the first case, a person believes that the events happening to them, above all, depend on his personal qualities, and are the natural result of his/her own activities. In the second case, a person is convinced that his/her success or failure is the result of external forces. There is no doubt that though locus of control is a deeply personal streak, it depends on the culture to which a person belongs. Reviews of works on this subject ascertain both similarities and differences between different cultures. For example, N. Chiasson (1996) found that the most important factors of happiness were perceived similarly in many cultures. They are family relationships, the ability to reach one’s goals, and positive self-esteem. Some studies, however, have yielded certain differences between cultural groups. Thus, V.K. Lee and Н.A. Dengerink (1992) stated that Swedish men and U.S. men have a similar locus of control, but Swedish women are more externally oriented than U.S. women. The results of D. Munro’s research (1986) suggest that Americans are characterized by higher levels of internal locus of control than the representatives of Zambia and Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. According to Y.H. Poortinga et al. (1992), Japanese people tend to be more external in locus-of-control orientation than people in the U.S.; but, differences between different countries within Europe tend to be small. As J.W. Berry pointed out in 1992, African Americans in the U.S. are more external than whites, but his research on other ethnic minorities in the U.S. (such as Hispanics) has been ambiguous. Siu-Ling Lau (1989) referred to evidence that Chinese were speculated to be more external locus of control than North Americans. Locus of control has an impact on various aspects of human activity, so there is no doubt that the method of measurement cultural differences in internality-externality is a necessary component in the arsenal of a specialist in intercultural communication.