Locus of Control as a Person-Situation mediator in the Consumer Behaviour Context.

Mary Lynn MundellMike Nicholson

Anthea Christodoulou

Durham Business School, England

Contents Conceptualisation

• Locus of Control• Situational Cues• Determining whether locus of control relates to susceptibility to

situational cues.

Methodology Findings

Locus of Control "Perceived control is defined as a generalised expectancy for

internal as opposed to external control of reinforcements" [1]

More Externally-Oriented

More Internally-Oriented

Belief that events occur as a result of luck, fate, chance or some other outside force

Perceives events as occurring as a result of their own actions.

1. Lefcourt, H.M. (1976). Locus of Control: Current Trends in Theory and Research New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Situational Affect on Behaviour

Situation

Object

BehaviourPerson

(Stimulus) (Response)(Organism)

Figure 1: Belk’s Revised Stimulus-Organism-Response Paradigm

Situational Cues Using Belk’s taxonomy[2]:

• Physical Surroundings• Social Surroundings• Temporal Perspective• Task Definition• Antecedent States

2. Belk, R. W. (1975). "Situational Variables and Consumer Behaviour." The Journal of Consumer Research 2(3): 157-164.

Hypotheses H1: Locus of Control (Internal) is negatively correlated

with physical surroundings. H2: Locus of Control (Internal) is negatively correlated

with social surroundings. H3: Locus of Control (Internal) is negatively correlated

with temporal perspective. H4: Locus of Control (Internal) is negatively correlated

with task definition. H5: Locus of Control (Internal) is negatively correlated

with antecedent states.

Methodology Consumer Survey distributed to shopping centre

patrons in north east England• Locus of Control: Consumer Locus of Control (CLOC)

developed by Busseri, Kerton and Lefcourt[3,4]

• Bipolar Situational Scales

Pilot Study Correlation to highlight relationships

3. Busseri, M. A. and R. R. Kerton (1997). "Beyond Control? Understanding Consumer Behaviour Using a Measure for Consumer Locus of Control." Consumer Interests Annual(43).4. Busseri, M. A., H. M. Lefcourt, et al. (1998). "Locus of Control for Consumer Outcomes: Predicting Consumer Behaviour." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 28(12): 1067-1087.

Findings Correlation between CLOC (internal) and:

• Physical Surroundings (r=-0.13, n=292, p<.05)• Social Surroundings (r=-0.17, n=292, p<.01) • Temporal Perspective (r=0-.13, n=292, p<.05) • Task Definition (r=-0.15, n=292, p<.05)• Antecedent States (r=-0.25, n=292, p<.01)

High susceptibility to situational variables is related to Externality- more externally-oriented individuals seem more susceptible to situational cues in shopping centres.