Locus of Control and Lucidity

**jessicamarie** · 01-07-2004 09:55 PM

Basic Gist:

Answer the questions here:

http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/bssh/psych/rot.htm

Reply with your score and how often you have lucid dreams.

If you want to know why I'm asking:

I was reading this article by Blagrove titled Lucid dreaming: associations with internal locus of control, need for cognition and creativity . It states that people who frequently have lucid dreams (here defined as one or more lucid dreams per month) were significantly more internal on Rotter's Locus of Control scale than were individuals who had never had a lucid dream, with infrequent lucid dreamers scoring mid-way between these groups.

If you aren't familiar with the locus of control, a person who has a more external locus believes that her behavior is guided by fate, luck, or other external circumstances whereas a person with a more internal locus
believes that her behavior is guided by her personal decisions and efforts.

So I found old Rotter's Locus of Control scale and was thinking that we could do a little survey here and post what we found. Could be interesting. Basically this author is saying that high internal locus scores for lucid dreamers supports the idea that a person's waking cognitive style (specifially internal vrs. external locus of control) determines to a large extent whether they will be a frequent lucid dreamer or not.

Also, check out www.dreamnexus.net and help it grow!

**jessicamarie** · 01-07-2004 10:05 PM

Ok, so take Rotter with a grain of salt. The questionaire has some STUPID questions and lots of errors. But you get the basic idea and just go with the answer that seems least obnoxious to you.

**Seeker** · 01-08-2004 07:01 PM

I scored a 5! But I firmly believe I am in control of 80%+ of my life and the circumstances surrounding it, and a Republican to boot!

Also, I LD 2-3 times a week. Dunno what that does to the theory...

**jessicamarie** · 01-10-2004 03:55 PM

Seeker,

Just posting here, as well as dreamnexus, my reply to your confusion over the scoring.

Your results are consistant with the hypothesis that a high internal locus of control (a 'LOW' score) is correlated with a larger amount of lucid dreaming. What you were getting confused about is the fact that scoring a 5 is a low score even though it means you have a 'HIGH' interal locus of control. Does that make any sense?

Oh and my score: I scored 15/23, which is a high score and denotes an external locus of control. I have had very few lucid dreaming experiences.

Thanks for doing the survey...I guess it's not that exciting as no one else has tried.

**Seeker** · 01-10-2004 05:05 PM

Yaay!!!

I wonder what some of the power LDer's around here (you know who you are) would score.
Come on guys, this should be really interesting!

**Erfeyah** · 01-10-2004 07:16 PM

I started lucid dreaming one and a half month ago. Ihad my first lucid dream after 13 days and since then i had 5 or 6 lucid dreams.
My score was 1. I have to notice though that at 5 questions i was thinking that both answers were true depending on the situation, so i choze what i thought to be the best for the internal result. Edit: i really dont know what i would chooze if i hadn't read about the locus of control, while i was doing the test i was thinking about all the posibilities and that really confused me, it is luck but if you see it from an other perspective it is not but if....

i think you get the point.

**jessicamarie** · 01-11-2004 04:18 AM

adroid28 said "i really dont know what i would chooze if i hadn't read about the locus of control, while i was doing the test i was thinking about all the posibilities and that really confused me"

I did consider that explaining the reason for the quiz could cause people to answer the questions differently. A bit of confound, but I wanted to let people know why I was asking them to take Rotter's quiz so they'd check it out! Alas.

**A Lost Soul** · 01-11-2004 08:12 AM

I LD almost every night and I scored a 17... whatever that means. I'm not sure if that's considered high or low. Some of the questions were difficult to answer, as I didn't agree with either statement.

So, did I win a prize?

**jessicamarie** · 01-11-2004 02:32 PM

Lost Soul,

I think that a 17 is probably a mid-range score. Of course, some deviation is expected in that some lucid dreamers will have a more external locus of control and some people who don't have LDs ever or often will have an internal locus.

I'm wondering if becoming lucid is more 'work' for people with an external locus than for people with an internal locus of control? Would make sense to me.

Your prize! I'd almost forgotten. I've got a nice fat sow waiting in the pig pin that you can pick up at your leisure, here in backwoods virginia. You can make bacon and fried pork rinds. It'll be great!

**Erfeyah** · 01-11-2004 04:53 PM

Jessicamarrie i think that you should consider the fact of natural LD's like lost soul. I think that you can be a LD when you have internal locus of control more easally but it might be another way.Most natural LD's have a faith in the second reality whitch i think helps them to have LD's without that meaning that they have internal LOC. On the other hand someone that's trying to have LD's and have internal LOC will find it easyer than someone with external. I think this is because external LOC has to do with strong faith. Natural LD's have strong faith in dreams while people with external LOC have strong faith in their reality that doesn't involve dreams.(i hope that makes sense

)

P.S:I used Locus of control in an Essay for psychology, so... THANKS

**A Lost Soul** · 01-11-2004 05:07 PM

Originally posted by jessicamarie+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jessicamarie)</div>

Lost Soul,
I'm wondering if becoming lucid is more 'work' for people with an external locus than for people with an internal locus of control? Would make sense to me.
[/b]

I have to admit, at first I thought this was a little odd, but it's actually very interesting. I don't mean to sound pompous or anything, but when I first started coming to this board, I had a bit of a time trying to understand what people meant when they said that they tried to become lucid. Part of me was wondering because I've never really had to try for it... it's just sort of been there my whole life. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing because it's part of what made me different. I'm considering it a good thing, though. And since I've been here, everyone has taught me so much about what had always been a big part of my life.
<!--QuoteBegin-jessicamarie
Your prize! I'd almost forgotten. I've got a nice fat sow waiting in the pig pin that you can pick up at your leisure, here in backwoods virginia. You can make bacon and fried pork rinds. It'll be great!

Yay! My arteries are solidifying in anticipation!

(Actually, that's probably not too far from the truth.

I love bacon. Never tried pork rinds though... what, exactly, is a pork rind, anyway?)

**jessicamarie** · 01-12-2004 12:16 AM

Lost Soul,

I am jealous of your natural ability to have lucid experiences. Believe me, it's definately not that easy for everyone. I have only had three very brief lucid experiences despite having an incredibily vivid and extensive dream life. I am extremely interested and open to the experience. Enjoy the gift you have!

As for pork rinds, not sure you're going to want to know...they are pieces of pig skin that is deep fried. Have you never seen them in grocery or convience stores or are they more regional than I thought? Southerners eat all kinds of gross stuff. My office had a crhistmas party and they actually had chitlins (large intestines of a pig)! EWWWW!

**Seeker** · 01-12-2004 02:25 AM

Originally posted by jessicamarie
Southerners eat all kinds of gross stuff. My office had a crhistmas party and they actually had chitlins (large intestines of a pig)! EWWWW!

So what is wrong with that?

I thought you were a southern gal. Shucks, jou don't live more than a five hourse drive from me!

The south makes the best BBQ. I BBQd this weekend with three inches of snow on the ground!