Masters Thesis

A study of the relation between locus of control and risk taking for graduate students in education

This study is an exploration of an association between willingness to risk and external-internal locus of control. Do past experiences of failure affect the decision-making process or are values embedded firmly in social learning experiences which stress the roles of both expectancies and reinforcement? Research suggests that students willing to take risks show significant tendencies toward internality in their orientation (80% to 90% “valid”) and low-risk achievers perceive themselves as less able persons than do high risk achievers. Sample items from the Willingness to Risk and Internal-External Control Scale for Adults, and the Validation for these scales are provided in the Appendix. The implications of these results are discussed. Also, abstracts of some of the most significant studies dealing with the nature of locus of control and risk-taking are included in an Appendix.

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