A comparison of police officers and municipal employees in the realms of locus of control, change orientation, and life-style characteristics

1. Compared to municipal employees, police officers would be more likely to attribute the consequences of their behavior to Powerful Others rather than to Internal or Chance controls.

2. Whereas municipal employees would be more likely to attribute the causality of their behavior to the change orientations of environ mental manipulation and inner resources, police officers would be more likely to attribute causality to supernatural intervention, physical intervention, and chance.

3. Municipal employees would report more positive life-style characteristics than police officers.

Independent samples t tests on the locus of control and life style measures failed to support the hypotheses. Chi-square analysis performed on the change orientation measure failed to reach significance. Although the overall results failed to support the hypotheses, the results demonstrated three specific differences.

1. In the realm of locus of control, In-service Police attributed the consequences of their behavior to Powerful Others significantly more than did City Police.

2. Municipal Employees attributed the consequences of their behavior to forces beyond their realm of control (Powerful Others) significantly more than did City Police.

3. City Police perceived their lives as more effectively managed in the Behaviorel domain than did In-service Police.

The results were discussed in terms of possible explanations for the specific differences obtained and possible explanations for the failure of the methodology of the study to adequately test the hypotheses. Recommendations for future research in the realms of locus of control, change orientation, and life-style characteristics of police officers were discussed.