Locus of control

Question 1

What is locus of control?

Answer 1

• Suggested by Rotter (1954, 1969), is an individual’s perception of their own personal control over their behaviour/life.
• This can be measured on a dimension/ scale ranging from high internal locus of control to high external locus of control.

Question 2

Outline an internal locus of control.

Answer 2

• An individual with a high locus of control has a sense of responsibility for their actions and feel that these actions dictate their life experience.
• As a result they feel less concern for social approval (I.e. the opinions of others) and are therefore more able to resist the pressures to obey or conform.
• As found by Spector (1982) they are: Active seekers of useful information, more achievement oriented and consequently more likely to become leaders than followers, and are better at resisting coercion.

Question 3

Outline an external locus of control

Answer 3

• An individual with a high external locus of control feel that their life experience is dictated by external forces such as others, the influence of luck, fate or destiny, and so feel little to no responsibility for their actions.
• As such, they tend to approach life with a more passive and fatalistic attitude than others. They also lack independence and so take the opinions of other seriously leading to less of an ability to resist the pressures to conform or obey

Question 4

Research opposition of LOC

Answer 4

• In a replication of Milgram’s study, Holland (1967) assessed participants for internal or external locus of control.
• It was found that 37% of those with an internal locus of control refused to continue to the highest shock level, compared to 23% of those with an external locus of control.
• Although the study suggests that those with a high internal locus of control are more able to resist orders the majority still obeyed which shows that locus of control as explanation for obedience incomplete.

Question 5

Twenge at al., (2004)

Answer 5

Meta analysis from American obedience studies over a 40-year period (1960-2002). The data showed that over time, young Americans have become more resistant to obedience, but have also become more external in their locus of control.
- If increasing resistance were linked to an internal LOC then we would expect people to have become more internal. This challenges the link between internal LOC and resistance. However, it can be noted that the results may be due to a changing society where many things are increasingly outside personal control.