Publication Date

7-1978

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Sam McFarland, Clinton Layne, Elsie Dotson

Degree Program

Department of Psychology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that external locus of control and victim responsibility influence individuals' helping behavior (Lerner & Reavy, 1975; Phares & Lamiell, 1975; Phares & Wilson, 1972). The present study investigated the relationships between locus of control and helping behavior in a situation where the victim was or was not responsible for her predicament. A locus of control scale was administered to 67 male and 93 female undergraduates at Western Kentucky University. Subjects were assigned to one of the responsibility situations in which they could volunteer to help a graduate student with either none, one, two, three, or four one-half hour experimental sessions. The results of the ANOVAs and chi squares for each sex indicated that locus of control and responsibility attribution were not significantly related to number of helping sessions volunteered or to the proportion of subjects' helping.

Disciplines

Applied Behavior Analysis | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

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