Bernd Six, Barbara Krahé

• The traditional dichotomy of internal vs. external locus of control is substituted by the more recent distinction between internals, congruent externals, and defensive externals. While internals and congruent externals are predicted to make causal attributions of other persons' performance in accordance with their locus of control irrespective of the nature of the outcome (success vs. failure in achievement situations, positive vs. negative experience in social contacts), defensive externals are expected to vary their causal attributions as a function of outcome. Personal relevance attached to achievement and social contact is included as an additional variable. The presumed correspondence between locus of control and causal attribution - as derived from the conceptualization of locus of control as a personality variable - is not confirmed by our data. The differences expected between the three groups are demonstrated only for achievement-related items. Personal relevance does not significantly modify the relationship between locus ofThe traditional dichotomy of internal vs. external locus of control is substituted by the more recent distinction between internals, congruent externals, and defensive externals. While internals and congruent externals are predicted to make causal attributions of other persons' performance in accordance with their locus of control irrespective of the nature of the outcome (success vs. failure in achievement situations, positive vs. negative experience in social contacts), defensive externals are expected to vary their causal attributions as a function of outcome. Personal relevance attached to achievement and social contact is included as an additional variable. The presumed correspondence between locus of control and causal attribution - as derived from the conceptualization of locus of control as a personality variable - is not confirmed by our data. The differences expected between the three groups are demonstrated only for achievement-related items. Personal relevance does not significantly modify the relationship between locus of control and causal attribution.…