Role of Generalized Expectancies, Need-Achievement in Persisting Behavior of Adolescents on a Task of Intermediate Difficulty Level

180 male students of 10+1&10+2 were tested on Rotter’s scale of locus of control and TAT ((3BM, 6BM, 7BM, 8BM, 10 & 20) in experimentally induced situations of probability of success of Ps.50 by specific instructions. An Insoluble figure--‘perceptual reasoning task’ was used to test persistence of externally & internally controlled Ss who were high and low on need-achievement. Analysis of variance & t-test were used for analysis of data. Findings concluded that----(1) High need-Achievers persisted longer in comparison to Low need-Achievers at a task of intermediate difficulty level.(2) LOC, generalized expectancy, does not show any significant effect independently at a task of PS.50.(3) when LOC interacted with motive strength, it acted significantly.(4) High motive strength (MS>MAF) showed that internally controlled LOC subjects (Ss) and externally controlled LOC SS, both behaved in a same manner and showed no significant difference in persistence.(5) Internally controlled LOC SS persisted longer than externally controlled LOC SS with Low motive to succeed.( 6) externally controlled LOC Ss persisted less in comparison to internally controlled LOC Ss with high motive to succeed .