3. Cultural differences on locus of control do not cleanly fall along the analytic vs. holistic cognition framework. Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars (1997) examined locus of control across 14 countries and found some cross-national differences in locus of control, but larger differences by gender and status across countries. Moreover, the meaning of internal versus external locus of control may be different across cultures. For example, external locus of control is generally related to greater depression and anxiety; these associations, however, are stronger in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures (Cheng, Cheung, Chio, &
Chan, 2013). Thus, the search for cross-cultural differences in internal versus external locus of control may obscure more important differences based on other social constructs. Also, recall our discussion of multiple types of control (direct, indirect, proxy, collective) in Chapter 6.