Locus of Control, Student Motivation, and Achievement in Principles of Microeconomics

Abstract

In the principles of microeconomics class that I taught during the summer of 2013, 44 out of 48 students participated in the completion of 5 questionnaires and a survey describing student characteristics. The questionnaires include: a 29-item Locus of Control Scale, a 12-item Achievement Goal Scale, a 19-item Test Anxiety Scale, a 16-item Procrastination Scale, and a 5-item Fear of Failure Scale. Using locus of control, the class was divided into two equal-sized groups of 22 students by a median split of 8.5. Those who scored 8 and below were treated as internals and those who scored 9 and above were treated as externals. The results of this study show that internals achieved better academically, suffered less from debilitating test anxiety, scored higher on a mastery approach, spent more hours working, and tended more to be of white ethnicity than externals. The regression results show that the locus of control variable has a negative and significant effect on the exam average.