ASSESSING CONTINGENCY, POWER, AND EFFICACY - A PSYCHOMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF SOCIAL MOTIVATION

Research was conducted to examine the convergent and discriminant vali dity of two locus of control scales. A sample of American students com pleted measures of perceived contingency (locus of control), interpers onal power (desire to control), and social self-efficacy (interpersona l ability). The findings indicated that measures of these theoreticall y independent constructs are confounded. Taken together with findings from other studies, the results call into question the convergent and discriminant validity of measures of locus of control, interpersonal p ower, and social self-efficacy.