I read your “Hocus-pocus, the focus isn strictly on locus” paper [Wallston, 1992, Cognitive Research & Therapy, 16, 183-1991 in which you appear to say that the health locus of control scales are of limited utility. Why, then, should I bother to use them?
You read the paper correctly. They are of limited utility, but they do have some utility, especially as a moderator of the relationship between self-efficacy, health value, and health behavior. Anyway, no one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use them! I’m thinking of using the MHLC scales in a study. Are they reliable and valid? What reliability and validity coefficients should I put in the Measures section of my proposal (or the article I’m writing for publication)? These are the toughest questions I ever get asked. There is no simple answer. By now, the MHLC scales have been used in literally hundreds of studies. Generally, the results are that they are moderately reliable (i.e., they have Cronbach alphas in the .60 – .75 range and test-retest stability coefficients ranging from .60 – .70). These reliability estimates vary, of course, depending on many issues (e.g., the particular population studied; the length of time between administrations). Thus, it is fair to say
