Causal analysis and rhetoric: A survey of the major philosophical conceptions of cause prior to John Stuart Mill

This study focuses upon disclosiveness of persons of American and non‐Western cultural origins as a function of locus of control. The hypothesis and questions posed focused on potential American and non‐Western differences in disclosiveness that might be mediated by internal and/or external loci of control. The 360 respondents were American and international students studying in the USA. Analyses detected generally low‐level differences in disclosiveness (and locus of control) between persons of American and non‐Western cultural origins. However, when separate analyses were conducted for internals and externals, the persons with external loci of control displayed substantially more disclosiveness differences based upon their cultural origins. Locus of control appeared to be a meaningful construct that can help explain the reason (s) for normative cultural differences in disclosiveness.