INTERNAL, POWERFUL OTHERS AND CHANCE LOCUS OF CONTROL - RELATIONSHIPS WITH PERSONALITY, COPING, STRESS AND HEALTH

In this paper, the relationship was studied between the internal, powerful others and chance (IPC)-scales and a range of other psychological characteristics, self-reported life stress and health complaints. The data were gathered in a large Dutch sample consisting of different groups. The factor structure and reliability of the Dutch translation were highly comparable with those of the original version. A comparison of the IPC-scales with a Rotter derived unidimensional scale shows that the latter assesses mainly chance oriented external locus of control. Furthermore, the IPC-scales in this study are differentially related to personality traits, measurements of subjective stress and self-reported health symptoms. These relationships allow a more articulate interpretation of the scales. Salient new results are e.g. that the P-scale is more strongly related to passive coping strategies, while the C-scale is more related to psychopathological symptoms and to social inadequacy. Subjects scoring high on the I-scale evaluate life events more positively, use active coping strategies, and also express their anger more often. The results partly confirm reported findings of other authors concerning the validity of the scales, and are indicative of the usefulness and meaning of the IPC-scales.