What is the USC method? The level of subjective control - this is how this abbreviation stands for. This name refers to a specific methodology for testing or diagnosing the level of the locus of control, its internality-externality.
In simple terms, this is a way to determine how ready a person is to take responsibility for events in his own life, and for what is happening around him. This testing is often called the “Rotter subjective control level”, after the name of the founder of this technique. However, in practice, people go through a system of questions developed on the basis of the Rotter test at the Bekhterev Research Institute at the end of the last century.
What is this technique?
The classic study of subjective control is a test questionnaire consisting of forty-four items. All paragraphs contained in it are divided orbalanced in accordance with three main, indicative parameters:
- internality-externality;
- emotional signs;
- attribution direction.
Such a division of the paragraphs of the evaluation questionnaire significantly increases the reliability of the result, almost completely eliminating the option of errors that arise due to a short-term emotional state of a person or, more simply, mood.
Internality-externality
What is internality-externality? This is the first question that is asked by everyone who is interested in the test for the level of subjective control. This concept hides a person's predisposition to a certain form of control over himself and events in the surrounding reality.
The name itself comes from two Latin expressions:
- externus - this word translates as "external";
- internus, meaning "inner".
Diagnosis of the level of subjective control uses this concept as a basic, defining one. This means that if a person is inclined to explain the events taking place in his life by the decisions he made, his actions, then he is characterized by an internal, or internal, type of control.
In the event that people explain the current life situation by the presence of any external factors - fate, karma, coincidence, happy accidents, natural phenomena, help from others, decisions of parents or superiors, then they tend toexternal, or external, form of control.
The methodology for studying the level of subjective control is built in a specific way, but at the same time extremely simple. People inclined to the internal form of exercising control give positive answers to questions. Those who gravitate toward the external type, respectively, answer in the negative. Those with both types of control show mixed results.
Emotional signs
Emotional signs are the ratio between desires and opportunities. That is, it is a reaction to a combination of a specific incentive motive and practical opportunities for taking any action to achieve the desired.
Accordingly, negative emotions are formed when faced with difficulties or in the absence of opportunities, as well as when it is necessary to perform harmful, from the point of view of a person, or of little interest to him actions. Positive emotions arise when circumstances are favorable for achieving the desired and at the same time carrying out useful actions that are to the liking of a person.
When the level of subjective control is determined, a person is offered to consider both negative and positive situations. Thus, the emotional background of the personality is revealed.
Attribution direction
Under attribution in psychology is understood the mechanism of reasonable activity, in the process of which a person explains the reasons that motivate for somethingothers. In the people, this concept corresponds to the saying "Judges from his bell tower." This mechanism arose naturally and is necessary, since objective information obtained in the processes of observation or communication is not enough for social interaction.
How is the level of subjective control determined in this case? The technique is simple: the test-taker is offered questions that use third-person and first-person formulations. According to what the answers will be, the direction of thought inherent in a person when forming an opinion about others is determined.
How are results handled?
To determine the level of subjective control, it is not enough just to answer the questions, you need to wait for the processing of the test results.
Processing the data received as a result of the survey includes several stages:
- on a specific scale or key, a "raw" generalized score is calculated;
- the results obtained are transformed into stans;
- Stans' data is entered into a personal profile.
Stans is an expression derived from the English phrase standart ten, which is translated into Russian as "standard ten". In other words, this is a centered, generalized and normalized assessment, which is formed in the process of standardizing the available psychophysiological data, indicators.
What scales are scored on?
The method of studying the level of subjective control involves seven keys, each of which has its own scale.
They are calledso:
- IO - general internality.
- ID - internality of achievements.
- IN - internality of failures.
- IS is the internality of family relations.
- IP - internality of industrial relations.
- IM - internality of interpersonal relationships.
- IS - internality of he alth and disease.
Indicators that would be less or, conversely, more significant, the test for the level of subjective control does not have. To obtain a reliable and complete result, all data without exception is important.
General internality
This scale demonstrates the degree of development of subjective control inherent in a person. In other words, it shows how the respondent feels like a master in a given situation.
A high score means that a person easily takes responsibility for everything that happens in his life and his immediate environment. People who score high in this section of the questionnaire believe that everything that happens to them or happens around them is the result of choices made, actions taken and decisions made.
A low score, respectively, indicates a reverse life position. As a rule, fatalists and people who deeply believe in God get low results on this scale. Of course, emotionally immature individuals, as well as those who are prone to infantilism, will also demonstrate low results.
The spread of the evaluation criterion on this scale is from 0 to 44 points.
Internalityachievements
This section of the subjective control test shows what people attribute their accomplishments to and how they explain them.
A large number of points are gained by those who feel confident that they owe their life achievements to personal qualities, education received, their own efforts, the reasonableness of the decisions made and the choices made. In life, such people always have a very tangible, specific goal and a plan of action necessary to achieve it.
Those who get a small number of points are dreamers, representatives of creative professions, devoid of a commercial vein and other "hovering in the clouds" personalities. Such people sincerely take their own successes in life, any achievements for happy occasions, the results of the intervention of higher powers, or someone else's goodwill. In other words, such people are not inclined to take responsibility even for quite significant achievements and successes.
The spread of the evaluation criterion on this scale is from 0 to 12 points.
Internality of failures
This is a very specific scale. It shows how much a person has a developed sense of control in relation to negative, negative emotions, situations, circumstances.
High scores indicate that a person is inclined to take the blame on himself, and low scores, respectively, indicate the opposite. Those who score low in this section not only do not admit their own guilt, they alsoshift it to other people or to fate, circumstances, Heaven.
The spread of the evaluation criterion on this scale is from 0 to 12 points.
Internality of family, industrial and interpersonal relations
What these rating scales show is clear from their names. The principle of interpreting the results in these sections is the same as in the rest. In other words, the more points the interviewed person scores, the more responsibility he takes on in family, industrial and interpersonal relationships.
A high score, in this case, indicates not only a willingness to be responsible for everything that happens, but also a developed need for control. In other words, people who are prone to making important decisions and, to some extent, dictatorship and tyranny show high results.
The spread of the evaluation criterion on these scales is (in points):
- family - from 0 to 10;
- production - from 0 to 8;
- interpersonal - 0 to 4.
Internality of he alth and disease
Quite an interesting rating scale. The test results in this section show a person's attitude towards their own he alth.
The more points the respondent gets, the more responsible he is about the state of his body. People who show high results on this rating scale regularly visit medical offices in life, get vaccinated, and engage in prevention.colds. In other words, they are in complete control of their own he alth and are confident that it depends entirely on their actions.
Accordingly, those who demonstrate low results on this scale do not have the habit of associating their lifestyle with the presence or absence of diseases. These people prefer not to visit doctors' offices unless absolutely necessary, do not get vaccinated, and generally do not care about their own and other people's he alth. They are quite capable of going to the workplace with a fever, cough and runny nose and infect everyone around them. They are characterized by the position “it will pass by itself”, such people prefer not to use medicines.
The spread of the evaluation criterion on this scale is from 0 to 4 points.
