| Abstract: | 85 female undergraduates with either an internal or external locus of control (LOC) (Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale) were used to investigate the relationship between LOC and responsivity to expectations regarding their own and their teacher's competence. Internal and external Ss, acting as students, were led to expect that they would perform well or poorly on a lesson and independently to expect that their teacher was competent or incompetent. After receiving a standardized lesson from a confederate acting as teacher, Ss' attitudes and performance were assessed. As predicted, internal Ss were more receptive to the expectation regarding self than external Ss. In contrast, the teacher expectation manipulation had no differential effect on internal and external Ss. Results suggest that students respond both to expectations about themselves and about their teacher and that LOC plays an important role in determining how an individual responds to such expectations. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
