چكيده لاتين :
Many investigators have attempted to examine the relationship between perceived locus of control
and psychological problems. The present study examined this issue on a sample of Iranian University students.
Methods: Study subjects consisted of 134 Iranian University students randomized from seven faculties of
Esfahan University of Medical Sciences. The subjects completed the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) and
Levenson`s multidimensions locus of control scale.
Results: Results of the study indicated that subjects who were more internal had lower scores on the SCL-
90-R. Higher SCL-90-R scores were associated with belief that life was controlled by powerful others and
chance. Findings, also, showed a significantly positive correlation between powerful others locus of control and
depression, anxiety, somatization, phobic anxiety and paranoid ideation scores, and between chance locus of
control and obsessive-compulsive, depression and somatization scores. Although the positive correlations
between external locus of control and interpersonal sensitivity, hostility and psychotism were not significant, the
negative correlations between internal locus of control and these subscales scores were significant.
Conclusion: The results of this study support some previous findings that all three of Levenson`s scales are
associated with measures of maladjustment, with internality negatively correlated and chance and powerful
others orientations positively correlated with such measures.
Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (IJPBS), Volume 3, Number 1, Spring and Summer 2009: 33-37 .
