| Abstract: | Current evidence indicates that a personality measure which involves the extent to which a person perceives reinforcements as either internally or externally controlled (Internal-External scale, I-E) is significantly related to verbal as well as other behavioral measures of attitudes. The recent Surgeon General's report on smoking afforded an opportunity to study the relationship of the I-E variable to both attitudinal and behavior changes associated with smoking. The study was conducted 1 week after the release of the government report on smoking. Results indicate that (a) both male and female smokers are significantly more externally controlled than are nonsmokers; (b) smokers who were convinced by the evidence in the report had lower external control scores than those who were not convinced; and (c) among males, those who stopped smoking following the report were more internally oriented than those who continued smoking. It was concluded that the I-E dimension (which is independent of extroversion-introversion) may be an important personality variable in relation to smoking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
