LOCUS OF CONTROL

Locus of Control -
Rotter’s LOC -
Internally controlled individuals:
- successes/achievements are due to their own efforts and abilities
- self belief = blame themselves if the outcome is negative
- strong sense of self efficacy so they are less influenced by others
Externally controlled individuals:
- outcomes are due to luck, fate or other people’s actions
- anxiety as they don’t believe they are in control
- low self efficacy so they are more likely to be influenced by others.
The Rotter Study (1966)
Aim: can loc affect whether a person adopts or rejects a health behaviour.

Findings:
Internal =
- internal; less likely to take risks when gambling. external; risk takers and prone to cognitive bias.
- better at changing other individuals attitudes but resistant to their own persuasion
- less likely to smoke and more likely to be able to be successful in quitting if they do smoke
- less likely to conform to a majority view
External is the opposite !!

The findings support the assumption that loc affects behaviour.

Strengths:
- use of the I-E scale gives quantitative date which is much easier to analyse.
- high applicability to real life as a range of behaviours are considered in the method.
Weaknesses:
- ethics of the original studies were applied
- lacks reliability as only secondary research was used.