Internal and external locus of control

The chapter mentions internal and external locus of control. This theory was developed by Rotter. If we have an internal locus of control we feel that we have control over our lives and are responsible for our actions. If we have an external locus of control then we may feel we have no control over anything and are just at the fate of destiny. Research has shown that those that have an internal locus of control are more emotionally healthy and tend to do better academically. The chapter discussed how Americans in comparison to other cultures have a higher internal locus of control. However, this does not account for the self-serving bias which is tendency to blame others when bad or negative things happen to us. For example, if we get a bad grade on a test we may say that the test was unfair or difficult rather than say we didn’t study enough. Additionally, it does not explain why other cultures perform better academically when compared to ours. The findings are interesting because it shows that there is not one perfect explanation in the field of psychology and there are many gray areas. As the saying goes there is always an exception to the rule.

Locus of Control

Control: an easy word to understand yet a challenging word to actually deal with. We have people that think they control everything, others that think they are controlled by the world around them and pretty much everything in between. Control can be defined as the power to determine outcomes by directly influencing actions, people and events. When we look at it that way, we can begin to see that there is no way to control everything in our lives. I’m not saying we cannot control anything, but put in the context of that definition, we have to step back and really analyze what we can and cannot control.

The word ‘control’ becomes even more interesting when we have the word locus, before it. You see, locus is defined as a position, point or place, or more specifically, a location where something occurs. A person’s locus of control may be internal or external.
Internal vs. External Locus of Control

People who base their success on their own work and believe they control their life have an internal locus of control. In contrast, people who attribute their success or failure to outside influences have an external locus of control.

For example, let’s say you’re a person with an internal locus of control and you get a promotion at work or achieve some other type of success. You will probably attribute that positive end result to the work you put in. In other words, your success was a direct result of your hard work.

If, on the other hand, you have an external locus of control, you might attribute that promotion or success to external or environmental factors, such as luck, fate, timing, other people or some type of divine intervention.

Let’s use the same example and say that you were denied a promotion. If your locus of control is internal, you would find a way to blame yourself for the perceived failure. If your locus of control is external, it would be easy, even natural, to blame outside sources beyond your control.
The Benefits and Drawbacks

Individuals who identify with an internal locus of control tend to take more responsibility for their actions, whether those actions or the end results are good or bad. They do not accept outside influence for the outcomes, no matter what that is. If, for example, this person did not get back to work in time from lunch, they would think they should have eaten in the office or not gone to lunch altogether. The results of the action are theirs and theirs alone to bear.

On the other hand, a person who identifies with an external locus of control looks at everything around them as part of the success or failure. In many ways, they believe in the team aspect more than those that focus on the internal locus of control, as they will always praise those around them for a job well done, even if they had nothing to do with it at all.

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Internal and external locus of control