Factor Analysis of the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale: Why is Replication So Difficult?

This study represented an attempt to replicate the factor structure obtained by Lindal and Venables (1983) for the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale (NSLCS) for Children. Although the same factor analytic techniques were used on a similarly-constituted sample, a somewhat different solution was obtained. Comrey (1973) suggested that scales with dichotomous items cannot be factor analyzed reliably. As a more rigorous test of this theory, the factor analyses performed on two randomly-selected samples from one study were compared. However, this replication attempt also failed. The authors concluded that the dichotomous nature of the NSLCS Scale is the reason that replication of its factor structure has been so elusive.