Contents
The relationship of internality and activity in the field of self-development.
Investigation of the relationship between the level of subjective control and the activity of participation in personality development trainings based on the scales of internality-externality of the Rotter USC personal questionnaire. The study showed a significantly higher USC among the participants of the trainings, especially the trainings of the Sinton shopping center.
1. Introduction
Recently, some journalistic sources have formed an attitude towards personality development trainings as manipulative measures that reduce the control and personal responsibility of the individual, which causes understandable protest and objections from practical psychologists.
The study was aimed at resolving the question of the extent to which people who have undergone psychological training have a more or less high level of subjective control.
2. Hypothesis.
We assumed that USC, described by J. Rotter, has a fairly clear connection with the responsibility and independence of the individual, the ability to independently set tasks and make decisions. We also assumed that people who are interested in or have received training are also particularly interested in social success.
The null hypothesis in this case assumes that there is no such relationship or it is negative.
3. Methods.
The study involved 766 respondents, including 514 women aged 12 to 70 years and 252 men aged 16 to 57 years. 512 respondents have never taken any personal development trainings, 75 respondents have taken different trainings of the Sinton shopping center, 179 respondents have taken various trainings of other training organizations, 51 respondents have taken trainings of both the Sinton shopping center and other training organizations. Training dates ranged from two weeks to 7 years prior to the study.
Testing was carried out by presenting stimulus material through a website (own development), during testing, personal data of respondents and phone numbers were necessarily recorded. Anonymous responses and responses with inadequate personal data were excluded from processing as raising doubts about their reliability.
4. Results.
The data were stenised in accordance with the methodology, however, the stereotyped unevenness of the profiles suggested that the table of stenosis proposed by the method was apparently of little use for this sample.
For each group, the average scores for all scales of the Rotter questionnaire were calculated. In order not to depend on the interpretation of the stenized values, the average values for respondents who did not undergo any training were chosen as baseline, and only the deviations of the averages of other groups of respondents from these levels were further considered.
Table 1. Average values of internality scales for different groups of respondents.
Table 2. Deviation of the mean values of the scales of internality of the Rotter questionnaire for different groups of respondents from the mean values of the control group that did not undergo any training.
Coefficients of statistical significance for all obtained values, except those in italics, p<.01.>
The data in Table 2 are shown in the graph for clarity.
Figure 1. Graphs of the deviation of the average values of the internality scales of the Rotter questionnaire for different groups of respondents from the average values of the control group that did not undergo any training.
5. Interpretation of the results.
All significant deviations have a positive sign, which indicates the confirmation of the main hypothesis — the passage of personality development trainings is accompanied by increased internality.
The group of respondents who have been trained by Sinton, as the largest training center with methodically developed programs, shows a slightly higher increase in internality compared to trainings from other training organizations, despite the unaccounted number of trainings completed in other organizations, especially Io, which suggests not even just a connection , and functional dependence — more developed trainings can give a more pronounced effect on USC.
As expected, the largest deviations are shown by the scales associated with social success — Id, Ying and Ip, while the scales Is, Im and From show significantly lower (to insignificance) deviations, or even insignificantly negative ones.
The hypothesis is also confirmed by the high values of internality in comparison with the control group among respondents (51 people) who underwent trainings of both types — Sinton’s trainings and trainings of other organizations.
6. Findings.
The passage of personality development trainings is accompanied by increased USC.
Additional research is required to test the hypothesis of the dependence of internality on the passage of personality development trainings.
Apparently, the Rotter questionnaire needs to be revised in the stening table for modern Russian realities.
Trainers and methodologists of personality development trainings can be recommended to pay special attention to the development of internality in the training participants in the field of interpersonal relations and health.
Passed psychological trainings may be indirect, although not sufficient in the mathematical sense, evidence of high internality.