Psychological Reporrs, 1975, 36, 390. @ Psychological Reports 1975
RELATIONSHIP OF LOCUS OF CONTROL TO PHOBIC ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION1 PAUL M. G . EMMELKAMP2 A N D PEGGY T. COHEN-KE'ITENIS Institute for Clinical and Industrial Psychology I n some studies a relation was found between external locus of control orientation on the one hand and depression (Abramovicz, 1969) and phobic anxiety (Palmer, 1972) o n the other hand. The present study concerns the relation between locus of control orientation, depression and phobic anxiety in a population of normal students (58 females, 54 males) and a group of agoraphobics (77 females, 22 males). Subjects were given the Fear Survey Schedule (Wolpe & Lang, 1964); Social Anxien, Scale (Willems, Tuender-de Haan. 8: Defares, 1 9 7 3 ) ; Internal-External Control Scale (Rotter, 1966)3; and the Self-rating Depression Scale (Zung, 1965), with three items added, to fill in. Agoraphobics completed the scales individually, students in group sessions. Means and standard deviations on each measure are given in the table ( l e f t ) , and Pearson product-moment correlations among the four scales o n the right. For both groups the intercorrelations among the scales were positive. Since this study was only Measure
1. Locus of Control 2. Phobic Anxiety 3. Social Anxiety 4. Depression
Students
38.72 7.9 135.4233.8 46.2215.6 4 4 . 0 4 9.3
rs
Agoraphobics
43.12 8.1 188.2440.2 52.3217.1 53.4210.5
Students 2 3 4
Agoraphobics 2 3 4
.39t - - . .44t .44t .61+ .48+ .47t
.46t .24* .45 t . j o t .33t
.Ft
of a correlational nature further experiments concerning the causal relationship between locus of control orientation at the one hand and depression and phobic anxiety at the other hand are needed. REFERENCES ABRAMOVITZ,S. I. LOCUSof control and self-reported depression among college students. Psycholog;,al Reports, 1969, 2 5 , 149-150. ANDRIESSEN,J. H. T. H. Interne of externe beheersing. Nederbnds Tijdschrift uoos d e Psychologie en haar Gren~gebieden,1972, 4, 173-198. PALMER,R. D. Relationship of fearfulness to locus of control of reinforcement and perceived parental behavior. In R . D. Rubin, H. Fensterhem, J. D. Henderson, & L. P. Ullmann (Eds.), Adva~zcesi n behavior therapy 1972. New York: Academic Press, 1972. Pp. 1-6. ROTTER, J. B. Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcemenr. Psychological Monographs, 1966, 80, No. 1 (Whole No. 6 0 9 ) . WILLEMS,L. F. M., TUENDER-DE HAAN, H. A., & DEFARES,P. B. Een schaal om soeiale angst te rneten. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Psychologie, 1973, 28, 415-422. WOLPE, J., & LANG,P. J. A fear survey schedule for use in behaviour therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1964, 2, 27-30. ZUNG, W . K. K. A self-rating depression scale. Aschives o f General Psychiatry, 1965, 12, 63-70. Accepted February 19, 1975. lpreparation of this paper was facilitated by support from a grant from the Netheryands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O. nr. 58-20). Requests for reprints should be sent to Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, Institute for Clinical and Industrial Psychology, Trans 4, Utrecht, T h e Netherlands. W o w at the Academic Hospital, Deparment of Clinical Psychology, Groningen, T h e Netherlands. 3An abridged version of the adaptation made for use i n the Netherlands was used (Andriessen, 1972).
RELATIONSHIP OF LOCUS OF CONTROL TO PHOBIC ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION1 PAUL M. G . EMMELKAMP2 A N D PEGGY T. COHEN-KE'ITENIS Institute for Clinical and Industrial Psychology I n some studies a relation was found between external locus of control orientation on the one hand and depression (Abramovicz, 1969) and phobic anxiety (Palmer, 1972) o n the other hand. The present study concerns the relation between locus of control orientation, depression and phobic anxiety in a population of normal students (58 females, 54 males) and a group of agoraphobics (77 females, 22 males). Subjects were given the Fear Survey Schedule (Wolpe & Lang, 1964); Social Anxien, Scale (Willems, Tuender-de Haan. 8: Defares, 1 9 7 3 ) ; Internal-External Control Scale (Rotter, 1966)3; and the Self-rating Depression Scale (Zung, 1965), with three items added, to fill in. Agoraphobics completed the scales individually, students in group sessions. Means and standard deviations on each measure are given in the table ( l e f t ) , and Pearson product-moment correlations among the four scales o n the right. For both groups the intercorrelations among the scales were positive. Since this study was only Measure
1. Locus of Control 2. Phobic Anxiety 3. Social Anxiety 4. Depression
Students
38.72 7.9 135.4233.8 46.2215.6 4 4 . 0 4 9.3
rs
Agoraphobics
43.12 8.1 188.2440.2 52.3217.1 53.4210.5
Students 2 3 4
Agoraphobics 2 3 4
.39t - - . .44t .44t .61+ .48+ .47t
.46t .24* .45 t . j o t .33t
.Ft
of a correlational nature further experiments concerning the causal relationship between locus of control orientation at the one hand and depression and phobic anxiety at the other hand are needed. REFERENCES ABRAMOVITZ,S. I. LOCUSof control and self-reported depression among college students. Psycholog;,al Reports, 1969, 2 5 , 149-150. ANDRIESSEN,J. H. T. H. Interne of externe beheersing. Nederbnds Tijdschrift uoos d e Psychologie en haar Gren~gebieden,1972, 4, 173-198. PALMER,R. D. Relationship of fearfulness to locus of control of reinforcement and perceived parental behavior. In R . D. Rubin, H. Fensterhem, J. D. Henderson, & L. P. Ullmann (Eds.), Adva~zcesi n behavior therapy 1972. New York: Academic Press, 1972. Pp. 1-6. ROTTER, J. B. Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcemenr. Psychological Monographs, 1966, 80, No. 1 (Whole No. 6 0 9 ) . WILLEMS,L. F. M., TUENDER-DE HAAN, H. A., & DEFARES,P. B. Een schaal om soeiale angst te rneten. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Psychologie, 1973, 28, 415-422. WOLPE, J., & LANG,P. J. A fear survey schedule for use in behaviour therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1964, 2, 27-30. ZUNG, W . K. K. A self-rating depression scale. Aschives o f General Psychiatry, 1965, 12, 63-70. Accepted February 19, 1975. lpreparation of this paper was facilitated by support from a grant from the Netheryands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O. nr. 58-20). Requests for reprints should be sent to Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, Institute for Clinical and Industrial Psychology, Trans 4, Utrecht, T h e Netherlands. W o w at the Academic Hospital, Deparment of Clinical Psychology, Groningen, T h e Netherlands. 3An abridged version of the adaptation made for use i n the Netherlands was used (Andriessen, 1972).
