Self-report measure

Locus of Control: Powerful Others

Locus of Control: Powerful Others uses 10 International Personality Item Pool statements to assess Locus of Control: Powerful Others.

You learn how much you see powerful people as controlling your outcomes.

For anyone who feels other people hold the keys to their outcomes.

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Report and PDF $4, paid after you finish.

Your answers stay private.

It comes from social learning research on beliefs about the power of others.

Sample result, example data. Illustrative chart with invented scores; it does not describe any real respondent.

What this test is

Welcome. Locus of Control: Powerful Others uses 10 International Personality Item Pool statements to assess Locus of Control: Powerful Others.

The measure

It has 10 items, each answered on a 5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate) scale.

International Personality Item Pool (ipip.ori.org).

At a glance

Items

Response scale

5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate)

Est. time

~1 min

Access

Free to take · Full report and PDF for $4, or $2 to repeat

What it measures

Ten statements describe the belief that one's outcomes are controlled by influential people: that one's life is chiefly controlled by powerful others, that getting what one wants means pleasing those above one, and that people like oneself have little chance of protecting their interests when they conflict with those of strong pressure groups.

Levenson (1981) extended Rotter's (1966) concept of locus of control by separating two kinds of external belief. Belief in powerful others implies that events are predictable and may be influenced by managing relationships with those in power, whereas belief in chance implies that they are not. The statements here come from the public-domain International Personality Item Pool (IPIP).

The ratings are combined into a single score. Higher scores describe a stronger belief that other people control one's outcomes; lower scores describe a weaker sense of dependence on them. The belief can reflect real circumstances, such as working in strict hierarchies, as well as a general outlook.

The scale is used in research on power, health and work. On this site, the Internality and Chance scales complete Levenson's model, and the Machiavellianism scale describes a strategic approach to influence.

Validity evidence

Powerful-others external locus — belief that outcomes are controlled by influential others — predicts deference, reduced initiative, and vulnerability to authority influence (Levenson, 1974).

Example item

“Believe that the world is controlled by a few powerful people.”

Very InaccurateModerately InaccurateNeither Accurate nor InaccurateModerately AccurateVery Accurate

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scoring & interpretation

Your report explains each of your scale scores in plain language.

References

Levenson, H. (1974). Activism and powerful others: Distinctions within the concept of internal-external control. Journal of Personality Assessment, 38(4), 377-383.
Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public domain, personality inventory. Personality Psychology in Europe, 7, 7-28.

Sample report preview

The report shows your total score and where it falls across the range of possible scores, followed by a plain-language explanation of what scores in that region describe. Where the instrument has published interpretive bands, the report names the band and what it means. It closes with notes on how to read the result and on when a conversation with a qualified professional may be useful.

Report contents
Section	What it shows
Score	Your scale score, computed with the published scoring key.
Comparisons	How your scores compare with a published comparison group.

It is free to take, and the full report with a downloadable copy is $4.

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