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

In this paper, the relationship was studied between the internal, powe rful 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 gr oups. The factor structure and reliability of the Dutch translation we re highly comparable with those of the original version. A comparison of the IPC-scales with a Rotter derived unidimensional scale shows tha t 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-rep orted health symptoms. These relationships allow a more articulate int erpretation of the scales. Salient new results are e.g. that the P-sca le is more strongly related to passive coping strategies, while the C- scale is more related to psychopathological symptoms and to social ina dequacy. Subjects scoring high on the I-scale evaluate life events mor e positively, use active coping strategies, and also express their ang er more often. The results partly confirm reported findings of other a uthors concerning the validity of the scales, and are indicative of th e usefulness and meaning of the IPC-scales.