Traditional and nontraditional postsecondary vocational education students: internal-external control of reinforcement

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the locus of control orientation of nontraditional and traditional, postsecondary vocational education students attending urban area vocational-technical schools in the state of Georgia. The study sample consisted of 77 nontraditional and 77 traditional postsecondary vocational education students attending five different urban area vocational-technical schools in the state of Georgia. The students were enrolled in 18 different vocational education programs. The population was tested using the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control scale. An ex post facto research design was used for the study. Analysis of variance was employed to determine the effects of the independent variables (sex, race, age, and traditional or nontraditional classification) on the dependent variable (locus of control orientation). The independent variables were also tested for two-way and three-way interactions. The findings were: 1. There was no significant difference in the locus of control orientation of traditional and nontraditional students. 2. There was no significant difference in the locus of control orientation of male and female students. 3. There was no significant difference in the locus of control orientation of students when divided into two age categories. 4. There was a significant difference on locus of control scores between Black and White students. The major conclusion of this study is that, with the exception of race, the relationships between selected variables and locus of control found in other populations are not evident within the population of postsecondary vocational education students.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Vocational and Technical Education

Department dc:contributor.department

Vocational and Technical Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1979

Author dc:creator

• Duncan, Susan Lee

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Asche, F. Marion

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Gilmer, B. von Haller
• Hutchins, David E.
• Trapnell, Gail
• Webb-Lupo, Anita

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-07082010-020407

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/38736