locus of control - julian rotter 1966 and social support

what do people with internal loc believe

things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves, more able to resist social pressure to conform or obey because they tend to make decisions based off their morals

what do people with external loc believe

things that happen to them are outside their control, less likely to resist social pressure to conform or obey because they believe their life is controlled by external factors

how does holland (1967) support loc

repeated milgrams baseline study, 37% of internals did not go to the highest voltage wheareas 23% of externals did not thus shows resustance is partly related to loc therefore increasing its validity as a theory

how does twenge (2004) refute loc

analysed american loc studies conducted over between 1960-2002 and data showed that over time people became more disobedient but also more external which challenges the validity of the theory because according to loc people should have become more internal

how does oliner and oliner (1988) support loc

interviewed non-jew ww2 survivors and compaed those who resisted the nazis compared to those who didn't resist and 406 people who resisted were more likely to have internal loc in comparison to 126 people who didn't resist, shows that high internal loc makes individuals less likely to obey like the theory indicates

resisting conformity

if dissenters are present, social support is provided which enables participants to be free to follow their own opinion as majority is no longer unanimous

resisting obedience

if other people are disobeying then obedience can be reisted because the legitimacy of the authority figure. e.g. in one of milgram's variations obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when a disobedient confederate joined

how does albrecht 2006 support social support's role resisting conformity

evaluated teen fresh start usa which helped pregnant teens to quit smoking and some were provided with an older mentor - those with a mentor were much less likely to smoke than those who didn't have a mentor which shows that social support can help resist conformity

how does alten and levine 1971 support social support's role resisting conformity

carried out an asch-type task, dissenter was someone with apparently good eyesight and 64% resisted to conform whereas without the dissenter only 3% refused to conform which shows that social support can help to resist conformity

how does gamson 1982 support social support's role resisting obedience

ppts told to produce evidence for helping oil company run a smear test and were placed in groups where they could discuss thoughts - 88% rebelled (29/30 groups) which shows that peer support can lead to disobedience by undermining legitimacy of authority figure