Locus of Control

Question 1

What is Locus of Control?

Answer 1

• It is measured along a scale with internal control at one end and external control at the other.
• It measures how much a person believes that they have control over events that happen in their lives.
  ●-Those with an External Locus of Control believe their behaviour is determined mainly by external factors e.g. a promotion is due to luck. People with an external LoC, will be less independent in their behaviour.
  -The external LoC moves a person to place the responsibility and consequences of their actions away from themselves.
  -Not having to live with such consequences, they are less likely to think through the situation as the consequences do not hold personal importance.
  -They are more likely to obey and conform.

-Those with an Internal Locus of Control believe they are in control of their own decision making and future, e.g., promotion due to hard work.
-The internal LoC moves a person to accept responsibility for the consequence of their own actions.
- Having to live with such consequences, they are more likely to think through the situation as the consequences are more personal and important to the individual.
-They are less likely to obey and conform.

Question 2

A03 - Disobedience has high internal LOC

Answer 2

• Research supports that a strong internal locus of control plays an important role in resisting orders to obey.
  -Elms and Milgram found that disobedient participants had a high internal locus of control and also scored highly on a social responsibility scale.
  -Therefore, this supports the idea that individual differences can affect levels of conformity.

Question 3

Jews

Answer 3

• In further supporting evidence Oliner and Oliner’s research provides a real-life example of the relationship between LoC and obedience.
• Oliner and Oliner interviewed two groups of non-Jewish people who had lived through the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
• They compared 406 people who had protected and rescued Jews from the Nazis with 126 who had not done this.
  -Oliner and Oliner found that the ‘rescuers’ had an internal locus of control and also scored higher on measures of social responsibility. –Therefore, investigating the locus of control could help to understand the psychology behind historical events.