A study is reported in which several populations of both culturally deprived and culturally advantaged high school juniors and seniors were assessed on a standard measure of personality (Rotter's "locus of control") as well as several indices of personal aspirations and risk taking. Esentially, the paper asks: is there an interaction between locus of control and environmental milieu in predicting such educationally relevant variables as levels of aspiration and risk-taking increase. Using Rotter's internal-external control scale, the authors found no differences between the black, disadvantaged sample and the white advantaged samples. However, on the dependent variables (aspiration, risk-taking), significant differences were found between black and white internals, as well as between black and white externals. While acknowledging that several interpretations of the data are possible, the authors suggest that what characterizes internals, regardless of their life situation, is their understanding of their environment and their rational, adaptive reaction to it. A different slant to the variable "locus of control" is offered, one which takes into account the situation-personality interactions revealed in the data. (TL)