An examination of the relationship between field articulation, locus of control and aggression

Stephanie A Bellard, Tennessee State University

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the gender and racial differences in the field articulation cognitive style and to investigate the relationship between field articulation, locus of control and aggression in a sample of college students. This study explored the idea that men, in general, and Caucasians, specifically, would have more field independent cognitive styles, have more of an internal locus of control, and would be more aggressive than females and less aggressive than African-Americans, respectively. The researcher hypothesized further that there would be a significant relationship between aggressive behavior, one's locus of control, and one's field articulation. The participants for this study consisted of 187 male and female African-American and Caucasian college students from the subject pool of the Department of Psychology at a mid-south State University. Forty-seven of the participants were male, 140 were female; of these, 163 were African-American, 21 were Caucasian, and 3 were “other”. The participants voluntarily participated in the study and received extra credit points in one of their classes. The overall findings of this study indicated that males are more field independent and more aggressive than females. African-Americans are more field dependent and are more aggressive than Caucasians. Additionally, locus of control was found to be related to aggression. The more external a participant was on the locus of control continuum, the more aggressive he/she was. It may be beneficial for future research in this area to: include more variables that may have a relationship to or be predictive of aggressive behavior, such as other types of cognitive styles, specifically, impulsivity and reflectivity, socioeconomic status, family dynamics and education level; have a larger and more proportioned sample, as far as male to female and African-American to Caucasian ratio; and include participants from other ethnicities.

Subject Area

Behaviorial sciences|Cognitive therapy

Recommended Citation

Stephanie A Bellard, "An examination of the relationship between field articulation, locus of control and aggression" (2001). ETD Collection for Tennessee State University. Paper AAI3024613.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI3024613

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