Gender Differences in the Relation Between Locus of Control and Physiological Responses

The relationship between locus of control and the physiological responses of heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA) was investigated in 30 males and 31 females during an arithmetic task. The Levenson's Internal, Powerful Others and Chance (IPC) scales (Levenson 1974) were used to assess the various degrees of internality for each subject. Additionally, to determine each subject's physiological Lability or Stability (LS), EDA was measured by recording spontaneous skin conductance responses during a ten minute rest period and to a tone (an Orienting Response (OR) task). Heart rate also was recorded during the ten minute rest period and during performance of the arithmetic task. A majority of the subjects were found to be internal on the IPC scales relative to the norm for the I scale. For the heart rate measure on the arithmetic task, the results showed no significant differences between males and females. Significant differences were found between baseline heart rate (HRB) and task heart rate (HRT). A simple difficulty effect was found on the performance scores across the three levels of difficulty for all subjects. There was an inverse relationship between the I and C scales and the EDA, but no gender differences were found. Males, however, showed more electrodermal spontaneous fluctuations than females. Results of multiple regression analyses suggest that the best predictor variables for electrodermal reactivity were the OR and LS. Locus of control, gender, OR and LS did not predict heart rate variability.