Social Influnece: Lesson 10 - Dispositional Explanations of Resistance to Social Influence

Question 1

What is internal locus of control?

Answer 1

Believing that what occurs in life is the result of their own behaviour and actions.
They can therefore alter what happens to them
E.g. failure on a test is due to inadequate revision

Question 2

What is external locus of control?

Answer 2

Believing that what happens in their lives is outside of their control
Believe in fate or chance or luck or other people
E.g. failure on a test due to bad teaching or poor marking

Question 3

Why are people with high internal locus of control less likely to conform or obey?

Answer 3

1. They are more likely to be leaders rather than followers
2. They are less concerned with social approval
3. They are more self-confident
4. They believe that they control their own circumstances

Question 4

Evaluation of locus of control ( Oliner and Oliner) (+)

Answer 4

• they interviewed 406 german people who sheltered Jewish people from the Nazis
• they found that these people all had an internal locus of control which allowed them to disobey