Internal-external control and reaction to threat.

Self-esteem and its relationship to sexual offending

“…Lefcourt (1982) and others (e.g., Findley and Cooper, 1983;Sims and Baumann, 1972;Wallston and Wallston, 1981) have found that people who attribute control over their behavior, or responsibility for their behavior, to factors outside themselves (an external locus of control) suffer similar problems to those apparent in people low in self-esteem. Phares and his colleagues (Phares, 1978;Phares et al, 1968) have shown that, like subjects who are low in self-esteem, people who score high on measures of external locus of control recall more negative information about themselves than do those with an internal locus of control. In addition, subjects who are low in self-esteem attend more readily to negative information about themselves than do those who are high in self-esteem (Gergen, 1971;Mischel et al, 1973;1976).…”

Effect of Perceived Control on Stress Reduction in Adult Dental Patients

“…Phares, Ritchie, and Davis, for example, found that when their subjects were subjected to stress based on threats to selfesteem, internals indicated a greater willingness than externals to engage in corrective behaviors such as psychotherapy. 6 In the present study, it was hypothesized that dental patients given a signaling device would show less physiologic arousal and less apparent anxiety than patients who were not given such a device. Furthermore, it was predicted that within the perceived control group internally oriented people would show less arousal and anxiety than externally oriented people.…”

Locus of Control, Attitudes toward Education, and Teaching Behaviors

“…External and internal locus of control point to differences in social perceptions of individuals, with internals depending more 2 LYA KREMER heavily on inner resources as compared to externals, who tend to conform to social pressures (Rotter 1966, Phares et al 1968. Internals are held to be more active in efforts to shape their environment and to seek information more avidly than externals.…”