LOCUS OF CONTROL, MOOD DISTURBANCE, AND SOCIAL DIFFICULTY DURING CROSS-CULTURAL TRANSITIONS

The study examined locus of control in conjunction with subject sex, extraversion, life changes, cultural distance, acculturation (cultural identity and cultural integration-separation), quality and quantity of contact with host nationals and co-nationals, and personal (marital) relationship satisfaction in the construction of predictive models of psychological and sociocultural adjustment during cross-cultural transitions. Eighty-four New Zealand adults resident in Singapore participated in the research. Results revealed that locus of control, personal relationship satisfaction, social difficulty, and host national contact predicted psychological distress (mood disturbance) in sojourners. These variables accounted for 32% of the variance in the regression analysis. In contrast, sociocultural adaptation, assessed by a measurement of social difficulty, was dependent upon length of residence in the host culture, cultural distance, cultural identity, and mood disturbance. Forty-two percent of the variance was explained by these factors. With respect to locus of control, an internal disposition predicted psychological well-being, there was no evidence to suggest that locus of control interacted with sociocultural competence, nor was there evidence to corroborate the hypothesis that an external locus of control may be adaptive in a non-Western cultural milieu.