The effects of dispositional factors on behaviours

• How our own personality can affect whether or not we will obey or conform.
• Self-esteem


  How we perceive ourselves
• Low self-esteem individuals will have a low opinion on themselves and what they do, and will have a high opinion on others
• Someone with high self-esteem will feel confident in who they are and how they behave.
• Low self-esteem = more likely to conform because they don’t believe in their own ability.
• High self-esteem = less likely to conform because they have confidence in their own beliefs and maintain independent views.
• Some degree of conformity is important for society to function, even if we have high self-esteem, otherwise we would be continuously thinking of our own needs above others.
• Kurosawa (1993) recreated Ash’s line experiment in Japan – under high pressure participants with low self-esteem were more likely to conform.
• Informational conformity


  Conforming to the viewpoint of others, even when they have seen different information, due to low self-esteem and uncertainty about one's own ability to respond correctly
• Tainaka et al (2014) found female participants with low self-esteem were more likely to agree with co-witness to a crime and conform to their viewpoint (even though they saw different clips of the crime)
• The study only used female students, so the behaviour of males may have been different
• Informational conformity


  • Caused by low self-esteem and uncertainty about one's own ability to respond correctly
  • Leads to assuming the majority are correct and not having the self-belief to give a different answer or behave differently
• Locus of control in crowds


  this refers to how much control a person feels they have over their own life, with reference to external and internal factors.
• Internal locus of control 


  believe they have the ability to control their decisions about their own life and any success or failure is due to their actions or choices. They are confident but they do blame themselves for experiencing failure. These individuals tend to be middle aged. 
• External locus of control 


  they have very little control over their own lives and how other people act around them. Believe other people have control and they consequently have no option but to obey them. Passive people who are usually elderly or young
• People can be a mixture of both depending on the situation.
• In crowd situations people with an internal locus of control are less likely to be influenced by how the crowd is behaving because they believe they are in control of their behaviour and tend to be more confident.
• People with an internal locus of control are more likely to take part in protests and feel they have an influence over changes in society.
• Ransford (1968) investigated violent behaviour in crowds, questioned men immediately after a large-scale riot had taken place in America – found men with an external locus of control and a feeling that they were not in control of the situation, reported to be more prepared to resort to violence to achieve their aims than those with an internal locus of control.
• Effect of morality on pro-social and anti-social behaviour: this is the understanding of what it right and what is wrong.
• Kohlberg (1968) conducted a longitudinal study into morality. He followed the same group of boys over a period of 12 years to see how their moral thinking changed and developed over time.
• The influence of the brain in dispositional factors: brain differences can have an effect on personality.