Abstract
Urban United States and rural Mexican boys and girls were individually presented with a novel behavioral measure, the Preference for Control Wheel, to assess both their preference for control and their perception of locus of control. Due to an illusion, almost all children had an internal perception of locus of control. Nevertheless, urban United States children significantly more than rural Mexican children attempted to control the wheel of chance. Boys of both cultures attempted to control the wheel more than girls, but that difference did not reach significance. Results were related to Rotter’s social learning theory, Festinger’s dissonance theory, and cultural comparisons of child-rearing practices.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work [SPECIFY PERIOD OF TIME] after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).