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Locus of Control of Reinforcement and the Learning of Personal Superstitions University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1993 Locus of control of reinforcement and the learning of personal superstitions Guy Dean Bateman The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Bateman, Guy Dean, "Locus of control of reinforcement and the learning of personal superstitions" (1993). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 4938. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/4938 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY Copying allowed as provided under provision of the Fair Use Section of the U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW, 1976. Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author’s written consent. MontanaUniversity of Locus of Control of Reinforcement and the Learning of Personal Superstitions by Guy Dean Bateman B.A., University of Maine at Orono, 1990 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts University of Montana, Missoula May, 1993 Approved by Chair, Board of Examiners UMI Number: EP40402 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI Oisssrtaiion WMisHflg UMI EP40402 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code uest ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Bateman, Guy Dean, M.A., May, 1993 Psychology Locus of Control of Reinforcement and the Learning of Personal Superstitions (169 pp.) A Director: Frances A. Hill, Ph.D. The work on the learning of superstitious behaviors in animals is reviewed, as is the literature on the learning of personal superstitions in humans. Consideration is given to controversies regarding the essential nature of reinforcement. The demographic and personality correlates of superstitious beliefs are reviewed, as is the relationship between superstition and locus of control of reinforcement. It was hypothesized on theoretical and empirical grounds that people with an internal locus of control would be more likely than those with an external locus of control to learn superstitious beliefs and behaviors when exposed to response independent reinforcement in an incidental learning paradigm. Sixty eight undergraduates, balanced for locus of control, were exposed to response independent reinforcement on an IBM microcomputer. Their responses on the keyboard were recorded and analyzed for superstitious behaviors. Superstitious beliefs were assessed via self-report. The major hypothesis was not supported: Externals were more likely than internals to develop superstitious beliefs. No effect was found for superstitious behaviors. The experimental paradigm is critiqued on methodological grounds, and suggestions for further work in the area of superstitious learning in humans are made. ii Locus of Control and Superstition Table of Contents Page Abstract ii List of Tables iv I. Introduction 1 A. Superstitious Behavior in Animals 3 B. The Nature of Superstition in Human Beings 2 3 C. Superstitious Learning in Human Beings 34 D. Superstition and Locus of Control 70 E. Locus of Control and IncidentalLearning 76 F. Locus of Control and Learned Personal Superstitions 85 II. Hypotheses 93 III. Methods 95 A. Subjects 95 B. Apparatus 100 C. Procedures 100 D. Response Measures 101 IV. Results 107 A. Interrater Reliability 107 B. Main Dependent Measures 110 C. Ancillary Dependent Measures 112 V. Discussion 119 VI. Appendices 127 VII. References 155 iii Locus of Control and Superstition List of Tables Page Table 1 Mean Scores on the Internal and Chance Subscales of the Levenson Locus of Control Scale. 99 Table 2 Interrater Reliability Statistics for Superstitious Beliefs and Behaviors. 108 Table 3 Percent of Internals and Externals Displaying Superstitious Beliefs and Behaviors. 111 Table 4 Means for Main Dependent Measures for Female and Male Internals and Externals Who Developed Stable Superstitious Behaviors. 113 Table 5 Percent of Internals and Externals Represented in Each of Four Response Complexity Categories. 113 Table 6 Means for Ancillary Dependent Measures. 114 Table 7 Percent of Internals and Externals Stating that they Possessed the Ability to Type. 117 Table 8 Percent of Internals and Externals Using Typing Fingering vs. "Hunt and Peck." 117 Table 9 Percent of Internals and Externals Displaying a Superstitious Behavior Without a Corresponding Belief. 118 iv Locus of Control and Superstition 1 Introduction Everybody knows what superstitions are, but few people can define them with any degree of precision. Most (if not all) of us have had superstitious beliefs or behaviors at some point in our lives. Superstitious beliefs and behaviors have profound potential for affecting our existence. An understanding of superstitions, how they develop, how they can be changed or modified, will help us to understand the human condition, and possibly help us to improve it. In this paper we will address the means by which individuals acquire superstitions, and more specifically, how personal superstitions can be influenced by an individual's locus of control of reinforcement. We begin by reviewing the work on "superstitious" learning in animals, and consider some of the controversy surrounding the application of this term to animal behavior. We will also allude to the differing opinions as to the nature of reinforcement, a subject which will be dealt with at length later in the paper. From this brief review of the animal literature, we turn to the study of superstitions in human beings. After offering a definition of superstition, we will review the demographic and personality correlates of superstition in the general population, and then address superstition in the world of sport, which has proven to be fertile ground for Locus of Control and Superstition 2 investigating these beliefs. In the third section of the introduction, we address the literature concerning human learning of superstitious behavior. After reviewing some of the early studies, we will consider two controversies connected to the phenomenon of superstitious learning: the ability of human beings to detect contingencies between events, and the essential nature of reinforcement. We will offer a conceptualization of these concerns which will hopefully lay them to rest, or at least render them moot. The third section concludes with a review of recent studies concerning the learning of superstitions in humans. The fourth section of the introduction is concerned with some of the observed correlates between superstition and an individual's locus of control. We then explore the relationship between locus of control, the illusion of control, and cultural and personal superstitions. This section concludes with an observation that the relationship between incidental learning and locus of control may have a bearing on the learning of personal superstitions. In the fifth section, we explore some of the cognitive differences between internals and externals which may influence incidental learning. The relationship between locus of control and incidental learning is then addressed. In the sixth and final section of the introduction, we explore the hypothesis that an individual's locus of control may Locus of Control and Superstition 3 influence their propensity to learn personal superstitions. We also consider some of the implications of finding that there are in fact differences between internals and externals in learning superstitious behaviors. We conclude the introduction by looking at the one published study performed to date in this area. Superstitious Behavior in Animals Work with the response-independent (or noncontingent) reinforcement of behavior is generally conceded to have begun with B.F. Skinner's (1948) work with pigeons. However, Skinner's work was presaged by experiments carried out by E.R. Guthrie and G.P. Horton (1946) in the previous decade. Guthrie and Horton constructed a more elaborate and sophisticated version of E.L. Thorndike's puzzle box with the stated goal of attempting to determine if the behaviors of animals learning to escape from the box conformed to the general learning principle of association by contiguity. Guthrie and Horton believed that the behaviors of cats in escaping from puzzle boxes could be explained on the basis of a learned association between muscular movements (or impulses to movement) and the animal's preceding sense impressions or perceptions. Between 1936 and 1939 they observed and recorded approximately eight hundred escapes from puzzle boxes by laboratory cats. What they observed was that their cats Locus of Control and Superstition 4 usually developed highly idiosyncratic
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