Locus of Control and Internet Addiction among University Students

INTRODUCTION

Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. Where it connects the millions of people across the world. At present internet has become a part of everyoneřs life by providing information and entertainment at their fingertips. Due to this people highly attracted towards internet, since people are spending more time on internet they are unable to spend time with family and friends. By isolating from family, friends and society they addicted to internet. Internet addiction damaging the psychosocial development of individuals. Now a days all age group individuals are being diagnosis by internet addiction but young individuals and children are more addicted to internet than old individuals. Internet addiction is a excessive use of internet interfering day to day life of individual. It causes the impairments of domains like physical, cognitive, social-emotional and language development of human life. Kimberly S. Youngřs definition [1998]: defines internet addiction as any online related ,compulsive behavior which interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on family ,friends, loved one and oneřs work environment.

• Cyber- sexual addiction: addiction to adult chat room or cyber porn. • Cyber-relationship addiction: online friendships made in chat room or cyber porn. • Net compulsion: compulsive gambling, day trading or action shopping • Information overload: compulsive web or data base surfing • Computer addiction: compulsive game playing or programming.

• Starts spending more time on computer or with mobile • Drastic changes in his/her routine activities. • Social life takes a hit the person restricts himself /herself to online friends.

about online application • Reacting strongly when asked to restrict time spent online • Despite restricted physical activity they suffer pain in back, neck and hands.

LOCUS OF CONTROL

Locus of control as a principle was originated by Julian Rotter originally described psychological construct of locus of control as an element of personality .Locus of control refers to the perception of the extent to which individuals can control event in their lives. Rotter describes the internal locus of control as; the degree which person except that a reinforcement or an outcome of their behavior is contingent on their own behavior or personal characteristics.

Locus of control is an personřs belief system how strongly individuals believe/assume they have control over the actions and experience that affect their lives .it consists of two types that is internal and external locus of control. Person with internal locus of control assumes that his/her abilities or internal factors like hard work, concentration, motivation, confidence are responsible for all the events which occurring her/his life. And person with too much of internal locus of control they believe that they are the responsible for bad events and they think that they have the power to prevent bad events. Person with external locus of control assumes that external factors like, chance, luck, fate are responsible for event which occurring in his/her life and person with too much of external locos of control think that they lose initiative, loss motivation to achievement and do not bother about developing will power.

To study the locus of control and internet addiction among university students

1. There is no significant difference in internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control.

• Independent variable: Locus of control • Dependent variable: Level of internet addiction

Internal – external locus of control: This is a personal scale internet intended to measure an important belief system namely the extent to which an individual is controlled by an interval frame of references or an Internal -External frame of references. Internal frame of references refers to the individualřs belief of being self-motivated, self-directed or self-controlled. External frame of references on the other hand relates to the individualřs belief that environment, luck, fate and powerful others play a dominant role in influencing his/her behaviour and the rewards and punishment he/she obtains.

A comparative study using Internal and external locus of control scale and internet addiction test among university students. The scales were administered personally and obtained scores interpreted using Řtř test.

The sample for the study consisted of 60 students who were studying in Bangalore University Campus .The sample consists of both men and women students. Inclusive criteria - Only science students were included in the study

Information schedule developed by the researcher exclusively for this study. Internal-external locus of control scale developed by Julian B. Rotter[1966]

ŗPlease read the instructions given on the facing page of the test booklet for each questions there are two alternatives given choose the one you strongly believe to be true as for as you are concerned. And place a ŘXř mark against either Řař or Řbř in the answer sheet provided to you, this is a measure of personal beliefs and there are no right or wrong answers. Answer spontaneously, make your answer on the answer sheet provided.ŗ

• The Řtř test was computed to find out the differences in internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control.

• A score of one is assigned to every answer that corresponds to the answer in the scoring key of internal and external locus of control

The objective of the study was ŘTo study the level of internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control. To meet the objective a hypothesis was formulated that ŖThere is no significant difference in internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control. The Řtř test was computed to verify the hypothesis ,the obtained result were presented in the table 1.1

Table 1.1 shows that scores of internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control, mean score of internal and external locus of control is 29.2 and 29.13,SD is 2.11 and 2.09 and ŘtŘ value is 0.13 . Obtained Řtř value indicates not significant at 0.05 level and 0.01 level hence it confirms the hypothesis which states that ŗThere is no differences in internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control.ŗ

The aim of the study was to study he locus of control and internet addiction among the university students .The objective is to study the level of internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control. Hypothesis is there is no significant difference in internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control and the sample selected was 60 students who were studying in Bangalore University. The tools were used the internal and external locus of control scale developed by Rotter and internet addiction test developed by Young. The statistics was used in study was descriptive analysis and Řtř test, these were done to verify the hypothesis . Result of the study is there is no significant difference in internet addiction among students with internal and external locus of control. • There is no difference found in the internet addiction among students with internal and

addiction among students with internal and external locus of controlŗ.

• The presented study was conducted on very small sample

• Sample size can be increased • The study can be done for all age and gender

Rotter, Julian B. (1966) generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement, Psychological monographs 80[1]: pp. 1-28 Young, Kimberly S. (1998)ř internet addiction: the emergence of a new clinical disorderř. Cyber psychology and Behavior. 10[5]: pp. 671-679 Chask, K. and Leung, L. (2004)shyness and locus of control as predictors of internet addiction and internet use, Cyber psychology and Behavior, 7[5], pp. 559-570. Lam, Lawrence; PEG, Zi-Wen (2010)ř effect of pathological use of the internet on adolescent mental healthř archives of rediatrics and adolescent medicine, 164[10]: pp. 901-6

Guest Faculty, Department of Psychology, Jnanabharathi Campus, Bangalore University, Bengaluru-560056 prameelapn93@gmail.com