Locus of Control

Question 1

What is Locus of Control?

Answer 1

• LOC refers to how much a person believes they have control over their own behaviour
• This is a dispositional explanation as it identifies personality dimension
• LOC is measured on a continuum and someone will have either an internal or external LOC as their scores will fall somewhere between the two extremes of the continuum

Question 2

What is an internal locus of control?

Answer 2

• Those with an ILOC blame their behaviour and circumstance on personal internal factors that are in their control
• They believe that they are responsible for their actions and behaviour

Question 3

What is an external locus of control?

Answer 3

• Those with an ELOC blame their behaviour and circumstance on external factors out of their control
• They’re less likely to take responsibility for their actions/behaviours

Question 4

What did Rotter say about LOC and resisting social influence?

Answer 4

• Rotter argues that those with an ILOC are better at resisting social pressures and act independently as they feel in control of situations and thus feel like they have a choice in whether or not they conform/obey
• They are also less concerned with social approval of others and so won’t conform to win it

Question 5

How does Avtgis et al support?

Answer 5

• A strength of LOC as an explanation of resisting social influence is that there’s supporting evidence
• Avtgis et al did a meta-analysis on conformity studies such as Asch’s
• They found that those who scored higher on ELOC were more easily persuaded and likely to conform than those with a low score
• This suggests that there are higher rates of conformity in people with an ELOC
• Thus it’s plausible that those with an ILOC are less likely to obey others as they are unlikely to look to others when deciding behaviour thus allowing them to resist pressures to conform/obey
• This validates our understnading of how LOC can lead to resisting social influence

Question 6

How is methodology a weakness?

Answer 6

• A weakness is that the method used to determine LOC is flawed
• LOC is assessed using the Rotter scale which is a 23 item fixed choice scale
• This consists of pairs of statements that the respondent has to choose between to reflect their views
• In self-report studies social desirability is an issue as respondents may lie/exaggerate to please the researcher
• This decreases the validity of the categorisation of LOC as people may be inclined to show themselves as ILOC - this undermines the validity of the explanation