Impact of Locus of Control on Dangerous Driving Behavior and Positive Driving Behavior in China.

Locus of control (LOC) reflects a person’s perception of events as within his or her internal control or under the control of external factors. The main purpose of this study was to reconfirm the factor structure and items of the Traffic Locus of Control (T-LOC) scale among Chinese drivers and investigate the influences of drivers’ LOC on their dangerous and positive driving behavior. A total of 299 drivers completed the Chinese version of the T-LOC scale, personality scales of sensation seeking, anger and altruism, driver behavior questionnaire (DBQ) and positive driving behavior scale (PDBS). A 17-item four-factor Chinese version of the T-LOC scale was verified to be appropriate in China. More importantly, after controlling the impacts of demographic variables and three personalities, self-attribution positively predicted driving errors. For the external LOC, other drivers negatively predicted positive driving behavior, while vehicle/environment positively predicted positive driving behavior. Additionally, fate attribution was a positive predictor of all kinds of dangerous driving behavior. In conclusion, this study further validated the Chinese version of the T-LOC scale and revealed the impact of drivers’ LOC based on a comprehensive consideration of driving behavior, including not only dangerous driving behavior, but also positive driving behavior.