Locus of Control among Individual, Combat and Team University Sportspersons: Overall and Gender-Wise Comparative Evidence

Abstract

Locus of control describes generalized expectations about whether outcomes are connected primarily to one’s own actions or to external forces. In competitive sport, these expectations may influence attribution after success and failure, persistence, information seeking and the interpretation of controllable versus uncontrollable performance factors. This analytical study compares locus-of-control scores among individual, combat and team university sportspersons and examines whether the pattern is reproduced within male and female subsamples. The approved design includes 300 athletes aged 19–25 years from selected Haryana universities, with 100 athletes in each sport category and 150 males and 150 females. Locus of control is measured through the 36-item Hasnain and Joshi LCS-HJ, on which higher total scores indicate a stronger internal orientation. In the model analytical dataset used in the current thesis draft, combat sportspersons record the highest overall mean (M=55.00, SD=9.21), followed by team (M=50.55, SD=9.76) and individual sportspersons (M=48.52, SD=7.82). The individual–combat and combat–team contrasts are statistically significant overall, whereas the individual–team contrast is not. Among males, combat athletes differ significantly from both individual and team athletes; among females, only the individual–combat contrast reaches significance. The results suggest that sport structures characterized by immediate personal feedback and direct opposition may coexist with stronger internal control orientation, while team sport introduces shared and distributed responsibility. The findings argue for controllability-focused attribution training that promotes personal agency without ignoring genuine external constraints.