ETHNIC-CULTURE, REFLECTION IMPULSIVITY AND LOCUS OF CONTROL

Harold I. Ayabe

Jn Hawaii, some ethnic groups do not fare as well as others in the public schools. Of the many factors which may contribute to this problem, I have concentrated my research efforts on two: fast-slow instruction and locus of control variables.

Fast-Slow Instruction on Cognitive Strategies and Ethnic-Cultural Variables

While it is popular to attribute the poor academic performance of certain ethnic groups to a lack of cognitive problemsolving ability, personal research indicates that the problem lies in the appropriate (or, inappropriate} use of a problemsolving strategy under differing instruction and that the roots of the problem are tied to the ethnic-cultural variable.

My interest in the area of thinking processes dates back to my dissertation,t where I investigated the predisposition to use reflective or impulsive strategies in problemsolving (conceptual tempo). Under problemsolving situations of high response uncertainty, reflectives take more time to respond and make few errors while impulsives answer quickly and make many errors. I discovered that training to go slow (or fast) affected the length of time to respond but not necessarily the rate of errors produced; that is, speed of responding is readily malleable, while cognitive strategy apparently remains unchanged for some. Subsequently, both Santo and J2 discovered that Oriental-Americans Oapanese and Chinese)­on speed of responding to instructions to go fast, regular or slow-did not differ reliably from a non­Oriental ethnic group composed of Hawaiian, Portuguese, Filipino and Samoan Americans. (The term "non-Oriental" is used, for want of a better word. Non-Oriental, as defined, excludes Cauca­sians-as well as Japanese and Chinese Americans.) There was equal change in speed of responding according to respective instructions in both groups; however, the Oriental-American group produced

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significantly fewer errors when instructed to "go as fast as you can."

Two important findings here need to be pointed out: (1) Members of both composite ethnic groups did equally well under "slow" instructions. This indicates that subjects from these composite ethnic groups do indeed possess the strategies to do well. (2) The fact that Oriental-American subjects produce fewer errors under "fast" conditions, while the non-Oriental-American subjects failed to do well, indicates that the non-Oriental-American subjects changed to a less-effective strategy.

The finding that students of Oriental extraction (considered academically better in Hawaii} displayed apparently unchanged cognitive strategies (no change in error rates) in the light of changed speeds of responding, while the non-Oriental ethnic group suffered a decrement in performance, indicates that the role of culture, represented in ethnicity, plays a major part in thinking in relation to the type of speeded instruction utilized.

To confirm the role of ethnic background, I conducted a studyJ in Japan. I translated, with the assistance of Japanese professors, the directions for the Matching Familiar Figure Test (MFF} and the instructions used for measuring reflection­impulsivity. Data was collected on Japanese nationals using fast, regular and slow instructions. As I predicted, there were significant differences among the three treatment groups on MFF latencies, but no differences among the groups on MFF errors.

Because the women's "slow" mean latency score and "fast" mean latency score were essentially the same, only the male error scores were analyzed. The male latency scores showed the expected pattern; that is, under "fast" instruction, subjects produced shortest latencies; control, "regular" speed; with "slow" instruction producing the longest latencies. The important finding here is that the males produced essentially no difference in error rates in relation to speededness, confirming the earlier

finding among Oriental-Americans. The fact that Japanese male nationals behave in

a fashion similar to Oriental-Americans indicates that the source of the problem may be traced to the ethnic-cultural variable, rather than to another variable such as social-reactive (i.e., behavior due to a reaction to another's behavior).

Evidence that the social-reactive theory is weak can be seen in a study I conducted with Tymeson4 in 1973. According to our findings, college students showed ethnic bias in rating, while teachers in the Hawaii State Department of Education showed no such bias. This fact is important as it supports, in part, the idea that the source of strategy choices is ethnic­cultural rather than social-reactive.

My preliminary findings in the area of instruction and strategy are: (1) Members of all ethnic groups have effective problemsolving strategies, (2) mem­bers of certain ethnic groups use less-effective strategies under speeded conditions, and (3) the problem is probably based in the ethnic-cultural variable. locus of Control, Cognitive Strategies and the Ethnic-Cultural Variable

Locus of control (I-E) is considered to be a generalized expectancy, operating across a wide range of situations and primarily determined by past

experience. Internal control refers to individuals who believe that reinforcements are contingent upon their own actions (internals) . External control refers to individuals who believe that reinforcements are not under personal control, but the result of luck, chance, fate, or under the control of powerful others and complex external forces (externals) . Consequent­ly, a person develops a consistent internal or external attitude toward sources of reinforcement depending on his past reinforcement experiences. Locus of control, then, may operate as a motivational variable, i.e., the internally-oriented person who believes that rewards come about through one's own hard work would be more willing to expend much effort toward occupational and academic goals.

My research with Honda:1 supports the above reasoning. While no differences existed between internals and externals when asked, "If you could become anything you want, what occupation would that be?" (indicating that internals, as well as externals, know what occupations are the "better" ones); when asked the question, "What occupation do you think you1l have for your life's work?" internals selected "better" occupations according to Hollingshead's6 classification system.

Since internality is significant in career choices, it would be important then to discover if, in fact, 1-E is differentially distributed among ethnic groups.

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In my study with Shapiro, using the Rotter Locus of Control Scale, the discovery was made that no ethnic differences occurred among college students. I suspected that the Rotter instrument was not applicable to local college students; thus I not only replicated the earlier study but also gathered data using the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for children. I discovered7 that while the Rotter scale showed no ethnic differences, the Nowicki-Strickland scale showed that ethnic differences were present. The results showed that Caucasian-Americans were the most internal, followed by the Oriental-American students, and, finally, by the non-Oriental group.

Some ethnic groups are more internal than others, but is 1-E related to cognitive strategy? While it may seem logical to assume that there exists a relationship between 1-E and reflection-impulsivity (a measure of cognitive strategy mentioned earlier), most researchers report no significant relationship between the two variables.8 I, too, found no linear relationship between 1-E and reflection-impulsivity. I did discover, however, that there exists a curvilinear relationship9 where both internals and externals are reflective subjects, and middle responders are impulsive.

My preliminary findings in the areas of locus of control, cognitive strategies, and ethnic-cultural variables indicate that locus of control is a motiva­tional variable distributed differentially among ethnic groups and may be important to education and vocational choice. Locus of control is curvilinearly related to reflection-impulsivity: those either internal or external are reflective, while impulsives are the middle-scorers on the 1-E scale. Although this is a significant finding, much more research needs to be conducted to clarify its meaning.

The differential effect of Hawaii's unique multi­ethnicity and cultural diversity on education places a special burden on educational researchers. That unique task is to isolate relevant variables as to ethnic-cultural plurality and analyze them in the context of cognitive processing. The major thrust of my research as an educational psychologist has been to ascertain the effect of ethnicity and culture as it pertains to selected motivants, such as locus of control on strategies in thinking.

Footnotes

1Ayabe, H.I. Tht Efftcl of Rtfltclit1t and lmpulsivt Training on Conctplual Tmrpa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, 1969.

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lAyabe, H.J. and S. Santo. "Conceptual Tempo and the Oriental­American," in Tht Journal of Social Psychology, 1972, 81, pp. 121-123.

JAyabe, H.J. Conetplual Tt,,.po and Ethnicity: Implications for Educalion. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Sixteenth Inter-American Congress of Psychology, Miami, December 1976.

•Tymeson, S. and H.I. Ayabe. Difftrtnus BtlWttn Japanrst and Hawaiian Studtnls as Sttn by Ttachtrs and Educalion Sludtnls. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Hawaii Psychological Association, Honolulu, May 1973.

5Ayabe, HJ. and L. Honda. l.Dcus a/ Contra/ and Vocalional Choict. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Hawaii Psychological Association, Honolulu, May 1975.

6Hollingshead, A.B, and F.C. Redlick. "Two-Factor Index of Social Positions.'' in Semi Class and Mmlal 11/nm, New York; John Wiley and Sons, 1958.

7Ayabe, H.I. Mrasuring locus of Conlral al lhr Collrgt L.rvtl. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Hawaii Psychological Association, Honolulu, May 1977.

aBerzonsky, M.D. '"Reflectivity, lnternality and Animistic Thinking," in Child Dnirlopmrnt, 1974, 45, pp. 785-789. Finch, A. with P. Kendall, P . Deardorff, J. Anderson and A. Sitarz. "Reflection-lmpulsivity, Persistence Behavior and Locus of Control in Emotionally-Disturbed Children.'' in Journal of Cansu//ing and Cli111cal Psy1ho/11gy, 1975, 43(5), p. 748. Lender, J.L., Jr. Thr Rtlahonshirs of !ht lntrrnal-&ternal Locus of Conlrol Dimtnsion lo Rtflrction·lmpulsivily, Molar Inhibition, Rtprtilion· Choict anJ Dtlay of Gnllifiralion . Unpublished Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 1968. Lesiak, W.J., Jr. Tht Rtl11lio11ships of lht lnlrrnal-&lrrnal I.Deus of Canlrol Dimtnsign of S<holastic Achitvmirnl. Rtflrclion-lmpulsitJily anJ Rmdrncr in Priority Arras. Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. 1970. (Also, Dimrlalion Abslrncls lnltrnalumal, 1970, 2285B-2286B, University Microfilms Number 70·19, 331.} Massari, D.J. "The Relations of Reflection­lmpulsivity to Field Dependence-Independence and Internal· External Control in Children,'' in Journal of Genrllc Psychology, 1975, 126, pp. 61·67. McNary 5. with W.B. Michael, L. Richards and C. Lovell. "Interrelationships among Psychological Measure­ments of Cognitive Style and Fantasy Predisposition in a Sample of 100 Children in the Fifth and Sixth Grades," in Edurnlional and Psychologirnl Measurrmrn/, 1975, JS, pp. 477-485.

•Ayabe, op . cil., 1977.

References

Ayabe, H.J. "The Curvilinear Relationship Between Reflection­lmpulsivity and Locus of Control," in Journal af Grnrtic Psychology, in press.

Finch, A., with W, Nelson, L. Montgomery and A. Stein . "Reflection-lmpulsivity and Locus of Control in Emotionally­Disturbed Children.'' in Journal of Gtnrhc Psychology, 1974, 1.?S . pp. 273-275.

Nowicki, S., and B. Strickland. "A Locus of Control Scale for Children.'' in Journal of Consulting and Cliniral Psychology, 1973, 40, pp. 148-154.

Waite, D.E. Tht Rt/11/ionship Bttwttn Locus of Conlrol &ptcl11ncirs and Cognitivt R1/ltcl1111ly-lmpulsivily. Unpublished master's thesis, Purdue University, 1971.

H11rold l. Ayabt is Profo sor of Educalional Psychology al /ht Univmily of Hawaii 11/ Manoa. Hr rtctivtd his Ph.D. from Indiana Univmily in 1969 and is a mrmbtr of /ht Amtrican Educational Rmarch Associ11lion and /ht Amtrif11n Psychological Association.