The purpose of this thesis was to examine the relationship between locus of control and the intensive care nurse's perception of job-related situations. It was hypothesized that intensive care nurses who evidenced an external locus of control would classify job-related situations as more stressful, more threatening, and less challenging than intensive care nurses who evidenced an internal locus of control. The instruments consisted of (1) a demographic questionnaire, (2) an instrument developed by this investigator to measure the degree of perceived stressful, threatening, and challenging aspects of certain job-related situations, and (3) Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale. The questionnaires were distributed to nurses working in intensive and coronary care units in one medium sized city in Indiana. An N of 75 was obtained.The hypotheses that external intensive care nurses would classify job-related situations as more stressful and more threatening were supported (F = 9.26, p<0.01, and F = 6.08, p<0.01 respectively). The hypothesis that internal nurses would classify more job-related situations as challenging was not supported by the data (F = 0.01, p = 0,91).Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306