Locus of Control as a Mediator: A Study of College Students' Reactions to Teachers' Attempts to Gain Compliance: Robert A. Stewart, Patricia Kearney, and Timothy G. Plax

T EACHERS' control techniques have been the focus of a recentseries of studies entitled "Power in the Classroom" (Kearney,Plax, Richmond, & McCroskey, 1984, 1985; McCroskey & Richmond, 1983; McCroskey, Richmond, Plax, & Kearney, 1984; Plax, Kearney, McCroskey, & Richmond, 1984; Richmond & McCroskey, 1984). Designed to expand previous perspectives on classroom management, these studies have isolated power-based strategies (Behavior Alteration Techniques, or SAIs) and representative messages (Behavior Alteration Messages; BAMs) that teachers employ to elicit compliance from students. The power-in-the-classroom series has shown that teachers report implementing a variety of these techniques to manage students' disruptions in the classroom. There are, however, three important considerations overlooked in this series.