Effects of a choice awareness experiential workshop on locus of control, performance self-esteem, and self-oriented attributions in a woman/woman dyadic model

A role perspective was assumed to examine the impact of stereotypic suppositions on achievement motivation (motive to avoid success and imposter phenomenon), locus of control directionality (attribution theory and learned helplessness), and the developmental devaluing process (self-esteem). An attributional model for volitional determination was proposed within which theoretical cognitive constructs form the bases for the Choice Awareness system.

The investigation focused on comparative treatment and control data to assess differential effects on internal locus of control directionality, performance self-esteem enhancement, and self-oriented attributional appraisals. Subjects were thirty-one women who volunteered to participate in the study, fourteen in the experimental group and seventeen in the no-treatment control group. Utilizing a dyadic format, the workshop was scheduled for eight two-hour sessions over an eight week period at a community women's resource center.

The following instruments were administered pretest and posttest: the Rotter Internal-External Center of Reinforcement Scale, the Feminine Role Valuing Inventory, the Performance Self-Esteem Scale, and the Levenson Tri-Dimensional Locus of Control Scale. Correlated samples t tests assessed pre-post differences within the experimental and control group on six dependent measures. Following an adjustment of means, the posttest data were analyzed by analyses of covariance, with pretest scores serving as covariates.

Two within group assessments of locus of control dimensions, attributable to treatment effects, were statistically significant (p<.05). Although the outcome results were of insufficient magnitude to achieve statistical significance at the predicted level with the analyses of covariance, the detection of directional trends is encouraging enough to merit, with some modifications, further investigation of the Choice Awareness system with women.