Locus of Control and Affectivity by Gender and Occupational Status

Peter B. Smith and Shaun Dugan

Silvia Rosario
Yubeen Song
Ignacio Martinez

Theoretical background
Eagly& Wood (1991) : They suggested the concept of ‘communal’ and ‘agentic’. Communal dimension’ refers
to ‘a concern for the welfare for others’. And ‘agentic dimension’ is defined as ‘independence from others.’ [1]

Cross Cultural Work on Gender Differences

In Cultural-Level studies, Williams and Best provided a basis for the pan-cultural universality about gender
stereotypes. In other study by Gough and Heilbrum about letting students choose the adjectives, the analysis
showed that adjectives associated with men were stronger and more active.[2]

Economic Development and Modernity

A direct relationship between the economic development of the country and gender roles is the diversity of
career opportunities. In industrialized countries, women have more capacity to choose. In addition, as
individual capacity to choose increases, idiocentric values tend to increase for both male and females, and the
gap between men and women decreases.

Locus of Control
The term ‘Locus of control’ refers to how much control a person feels they have in their own behavior. There
are two concepts; Internal control and external control. A belief in Internal Control is that people believe that the
result depends on their own actions, and the latter is that the result is dependent on external factors such as
chances, fate, or powerful others. For instance, Unemployed persons are more likely to have an external locus of
control because their efforts have not led to results.

Gender Differences in Locus of Control

In an occupational environment, women are more likely to have an external locus of control, because their
efforts do not lead to a higher status. According to an eight-year study conducted in the United States, the
female group tended to have an increased external locus of control. This has also been affected by cultural
changes[3]

Locus of Control and Affectivity

Affectivity orientation

In contrast to locus of control, the concept of affectivity, as elaborated by Parsons & Shils refers to value
orientations relating to the affective content of a relationship which influences interpersonal interactions.[4]

The concept of Parsons & Shils divide the people in two groups:

Persons with an affective orientation: They can be affiliative in a 'natural' way and expressive in their
interpersonal relations.

Persons with an affectively neutral orientation: They tend not to be as expressive.

This division of groups is related to temporal differences in how people achieve gratification. Persons with an
affectively neutral orientation were said to be more likely to defer gratification in the interests of attaining
objectives.
“Every assumption requires investigation”

Applied methods for hypothesis test

This study uses the responses of 4,599 people from 14 countries selected from a larger database of employees
from business organizations located in 58 nations. Respondents were categorized as high status category if they
reported being managers or professionals. The remainder, predominantly secretarial, administrative and clerical
staff, were categorized as low status.

Procedure to make the test:

● The Rotter locus of control items were translated into the languages for the different countries. [5]
● Respondents were requested to provide their first and second choices in response to five scenarios.
● For each respondent an overall affectivity score was computed based on the number of affectively
oriented responses, with first choices weighted twice as heavily as second choices.

Results of the studies

1. Girls with less level of status usually are external. ( Luck, God…)
2. Girls with more status usually are internal ( Hard work, Effort…)
3. People with little status use to be affective people
4. There´s a relation between to be a external and a affective person.
5. The people who lives in less modern Countries (like Mexico) are more internal people than them who
lives in modern Countries (like Netherlands)

Other studies say that at school and at university the girls are more internal than boys, but this changes when the
child grows up and they start working.

Situation of Spain
In Spain it is very common that the family of the boss that is working in the business gets promoted instead of
other employers ( although the employer is better than the familiar). Thanks to my culture and my values I think
that it is very important to be a hard worker. Luck exists, but you have to work hard as it does not exist. It is said
that in Spain there are more male bosses than female bosses.

Situation of Korea
Korea is very modernized, but there is still a difference in the status of men and women in the professional
environment. Therefore, I think it is also logical that women have a more external locus of control. What is
regrettable about the study was that the possibility of the factors that influenced the study results was raised, but
I think the basis and follow-up study were needed.

Situation in Dominican Republic

In the case of my country, the Dominican Republic, society could be divided into two parts, one part with a large percentage
of internal control, people tend to think that the result depends on their own actions, but on the other hand, there is another
percentage that has internal control, they think that if their efforts do not produce results, they let luck or destiny act for
them.

[1]
Eagly, 1996
[2]
Gough & Heilbrum
[3]
Doherty & Baldwin, 1985
[4]
Parsons & Shils (1951)
[5]
e.g., Brislin, Lonner, & Thomdike, 1973)