Cooperative Behavior and Locus of Control Among American and Chinese-American Boys

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study investigated cooperative behavior and the effect of locus of control in 139 American (n = 64) and Chinese-American (n = 75) boys aged 8 to 10 years. Subjects blocked on ethnicity and locus of control were randomly paired into groups of internal, external, and mixed locus-of-control dyads, yielding a 2 × 3 between-subjects design. Each pair played a cooperative board game, with latency to achieve a goal the major dependent measure. The results indicated that (a) overall, Chinese-Americans were more external than Americans and, when matched on locus of control, were more cooperative than Americans; (b) external dyads were more cooperative than internal or mixed dyads; and (c) in mixed dyads, Chinese-Americans were more cooperative than Americans. The findings suggest the importance of the role that cultural context plays in the socialization process.