Reid-Ware Three-Factor Internal-External Scale

Abstract

The Reid-Ware Three-Factor Internal-External Scale is a specialized 45-item psychological scale designed to measure the multidimensional nature of the Locus of Control (LOC) construct. Developed as a factor-analytic extension of earlier instruments, this scale differentiates external attribution into two distinct types: Social System Control (belief that powerful societal forces dictate outcomes) and Fatalism (belief that outcomes are determined by chance or luck). It also includes a factor assessing Self-control, which measures the perceived ability to regulate one’s own internal emotional and behavioral states. This differentiation provides a more precise and psychometrically sound assessment of how individuals attribute causality for life events.

Keywords

Locus of Control, Internal-External Scale, Reid-Ware Scale, Social System Control, Fatalism, Self-control, Psychological Assessment, Personality, Attribution theory.

Authors

Dennis W. Reid, Elizabeth E. Ware

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Reid-Ware Three-Factor Internal-External Scale was to refine and extend the measurement of the Locus of Control concept, which was often criticized for being overly simplistic in its original internal-external dichotomy. By isolating three empirically derived factors—Social System Control, Fatalism, and Self-control—the scale provides a more nuanced understanding of how individuals attribute causality for events in their lives.

The instrument aims to offer greater predictive validity than unidimensional scales by separating attributions concerning external systemic forces (e.g., government, social sway) from attributions related to random chance, as well as separating these external factors from an individual’s perceived internal regulatory capacity. This structure allows researchers to target specific dimensions of perceived control in clinical and social research settings.

Construct

The scale measures Locus of Control (LOC), a core concept in personality psychology that describes the degree to which individuals believe they have control over the outcomes of events in their lives. The three sub-dimensions captured by the Reid-Ware Scale are:

• Social System Control: This 12-item subscale measures the extent to which an individual believes powerful, organized external entities, such as the government or societal institutions, dictate personal outcomes.

• Fatalism: This 12-item factor captures the belief that outcomes are determined by uncontrollable forces like luck, chance, or fate, independent of both personal effort and institutional power.

• Self-control: This 8-item internal dimension assesses the perceived ability to manage one’s own desires, emotions, impulses, and behavior, reflecting a capacity for self-regulation.

Validity

The validity of the Reid-Ware Three-Factor Internal-External Scale is primarily supported by its demonstrated factor structure, which confirms that the items load cleanly onto the three hypothesized dimensions. This establishes strong construct validity, indicating that the scale successfully measures the intended, distinct facets of control attribution.

The scale has also shown evidence of criterion validity through differential prediction. For instance, high scores on the Fatalism subscale are expected to correlate with measures of psychological distress or learned helplessness, while high scores on Social System Control may correlate with measures of political alienation or distrust. The incorporation of a distinct Self-control factor allows researchers to isolate internal regulation capacity, which is critical for behavioral prediction.

Reliability

Psychometric evaluation of the scale, as reported in the original 1983 study, demonstrated acceptable to high internal consistency for each of the three subscales. Developers utilized measures such as Cronbach’s alpha to confirm the coherence and homogeneity of the item sets within the Fatalism, Social System Control, and Self-control factors.

The successful factor differentiation inherently contributes to improved reliability at the subscale level, as it ensures that items measuring systemic control are not conflated with items measuring personal impulse control or random chance, reducing measurement noise associated with overly broad Locus of Control measures.

Factor Analysis

The development of the Reid-Ware Scale was rooted in factor analysis, explicitly undertaken to address the psychometric shortcomings of previous unidimensional LOC measures, such as the Rotter I-E Scale. Both exploratory and subsequent confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the existence of three statistically separable factors underlying the external orientation construct.

This structural validation is the defining feature of the instrument. It effectively separates the perception of external control into two non-overlapping domains: control exerted by the powerful (Social System Control) and control exerted by random, unpredictable forces (Fatalism). This structural clarity allows for a more rigorous examination of the antecedents and consequences of different types of external attributions.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report personality inventory / Psychological Measure

Format: Forced-choice (A/B format) items, 45 total items

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: General population (Adults/College Students in original validation)

Age Group: Adolescents and Adults

Population Details: Developed primarily using samples drawn from university populations, but designed to assess attribution styles applicable across the general adult population.

Test Methodology: Respondents are presented with pairs of statements (A and B) and must select the statement that best reflects their personal belief. Scoring is dichotomous, yielding continuous scores for each of the three subscales.

Keywords

Attribution theory, Rotter I-E Scale, Determinism, Chance, Political efficacy, Locus of Control measurement, Psychological inventory, Personality assessment.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source materials.

Affiliation Email addresses: Refer to original publication for primary author contact.

Correspondence Address: Refer to original publication for primary author contact.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was developed and published in 1983. Permissions and fees for academic or commercial use should be sought from the primary authors (D. W. Reid and E. E. Ware) or the journal publisher (Taylor & Francis Online, via the Australian Journal of Psychology).

Test Year: 1983.

Reference’s

Reid, D. W., & Ware, E. E. (1983). The Reid-Ware Three-Factor Internal-External Scale: A factor analytic extension of the Rotter I-E Scale. Australian Journal of Psychology, 35(1), 1-14.

The journal article abstract can be found here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/00050068308256250/abstract

A second link to the same article is provided here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00050068308256250?journalCode=taps20#.UvNKmmKSwT0

Items of the Reid-Ware Three-Factor Internal-External Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Self-control items

• (A) Even when there was nothing forcing me, I have found that I will sometimes do things I really did not want to do.

  (B) I always feel in control of what I am doing.

• (A) Sometimes I impulsively do things which at other times I definitely would not let myself do.

  (B) I find that I can keep my impulses in control.

• (A) When I put my mind to it I can constrain my emotions.

  (B) There are moments when I cannot subdue my emotions and keep them in check.

• (A) People cannot always hold back their personal desires: they will behave out of impulse.

  (B) If they want to, people can always control their immediate wishes, and not let these motives determine their total behavior.

• (A) Although sometimes it is difficult, I can always willfully restrain my immediate behavior.

  (B) Something I cannot do is have complete mastery over all my behavioral tendencies.

• (A) It is possible for me to behave in a manner very different from the way I would want to behave.

  (B) It would be very difficult for me to not have mastery over the way I behave.

• (A) Self-regulation of one’s behavior is always possible.

  (B) I frequently find that when certain things happen to me I cannot restrain my reaction.

• (A) When I make my mind up, I can always resist temptation and keep control of my behavior.

  (B) Even if I try not to submit, I often find I cannot control myself from some of the enticements in life such as over-eating or drinking.

Social system control items

• (A) There will always be wars no matter how hard people try to prevent them.

  (B) One of the major reasons why we have wars is because people do not take enough interest in politics.

• (A) There are institutions in our society that have considerable control over me.

  (B) Little in this world controls me, I usually can do what I decide to do.

• (A) If I put my mind to it, I could have an important influence on what a politician does in office.

  (B) When I look at it carefully, I realize it is impossible for me to have any really important influence over what politicians do.

• (A) As far as the affairs of our country are concerned, most people are the victims of forces they do not control and frequently do not even understand.

  (B) By taking part in political and social events the people can directly control much of the country’s affairs.

• (A) I do not know why politicians make the decisions they do.

  (B) It is easy for me to understand why politicians do the things they do.

• (A) With enough effort people can wipe out political corruption.

  (B) It is difficult (or people to have much control over the things politicians do in office.

• (A) By active participation in the appropriate political organizations people can do a lot to keep the cost of living from going higher.

  (B) There is very little people can do to keep the cost of living from going higher.

• (A) In this world I am affected by social forces which I neither control nor understand.

  (B) It is easy for me to avoid and function independently of any social forces that may attempt to have control over me.

• (A) Generally speaking, my behavior is not governed by others.

  (B) My behavior is frequently determined by other influential people.

• (A) People can and should do what they want to do both now and in the future.

  (B) There is no point in people planning their lives too far in advance because other groups of people in our society will invariably upset their plans.

• (A) The average man can have an influence in government decisions.

  (B) This world is run by a few people in power and there is not much the little guy can do about it.

• (A) Most people do not understand why politicians behave the way they do.

  (B) In the long run people are responsible for bad government on a national as well as on a local level.

Fatalism items

• (A) For the average citizen becoming a success is a matter of hard work, luck has little or nothing to do with it.

  (B) For the average guy getting a good job depends mainly on being in the right place at the right time.

• (A) In my case getting what I want has little or nothing to do with luck.

  (B) It is not always wise for me to plan too far ahead because many things turn out to be a matter of good or bad fortune anyhow.

• (A) In many situations what happens to people seems to be determined by fate.

  (B) People do not realize how much they personally determine their own outcomes.

• (A) Most people do not realize the extent to which their lives are controlled by accidental happenings.

  (B) For any guy, there is no such thing as luck.

• (A) With fate the way it is, many times I feel that I have little influence over the things that happen to me.

  (B) It is impossible for me to believe that chance or luck plays an important role in my life.

• (A) Many times I feel I might just as well decide what to do by flipping a coin.

  (B) In most cases I do not depend on luck when I decide to do something.

• (A) In the long run people receive the respect and good outcomes they worked for.

  (B) Unfortunately, because of misfortune or bad luck, the average guy’s worth often passes unrecognized no matter how hard he tries.

• (A) What people get out of life is always a function of how much effort they put into it.

  (B) Quite often one finds that what happens to people has no relation to what they do, what happens just happens.

• (A) There is no such thing as luck, what happens to me is a result of my own behavior.

  (B) Sometimes I do not understand how I can have such poor luck.

• (A) Many of the unhappy things in people’s lives are at least partly due to bad luck.

  (B) People’s misfortunes result from the mistakes they make.

• (A) My getting a good job or promotion in the future will depend a lot on my getting the right turn of fate.

  (B) When I get a good job, it is always a direct result of my own ability and/or motivation.

• (A) I often realize that despite my best efforts some outcomes seem to happen as if fate planned it that way.

  (B) The misfortunes and successes I have had were the direct result of my own behavior