Locus of control refers to the conviction of the degree of control a person has over the events’ outcome of his or her life. It represents the belief (or disbelief) in oneself’s capacity to shape the own future.
Locus of control is a concept introduced in 1954 by the American psychologist Julian B. Rotter as part of his Social Learning Theory in his seminal work “Social Learning and Clinical Psychology”, and then developed in 1966 in the article “Psychological Monographs”. It suggests that “learning is a cognitive process and behavior is influenced by social context or environmental factors, and not just psychological factors”.
Locus of control is a personality trait that affects our perspective and the way we behave and interact with our environment. It is not a black or white, but a continuum spectrum of nuances. However, there are two extremes:
- INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL:
- What happens in your life is the result of your own behaviour.
- You absolutely control each and every outcome of the events that occur to you.
- Causes rely on oneself: “I control my destiny, which happens as a result of my acts”.
- It is highly associated with the philosophical doctrine of Indeterminism, which states that phenomenons are not necessary determined by the circumstances or conditions in which they occur, and therefore, the acts and will are free.
- EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL:
- What happens in your life is the result of variables that you cannot control: fate, destiny, luck, politics, other’s decisions, etc.
- You have no way to control the outcome of the events that occur to you.
- Causes rely on external factors: “The destiny is unmovable, no matter how I act”.
- It is highly associated with the philosophical doctrine of Determinism, which states that each and every phenomenon is predetermined by the circumstances or conditions in which it is produced, so no act of will is truly free, but necessarily pre established.
What locus of control is better?
Nobody falls 100% into one of the two categories, but is positioned in some point between both as a scale.
In most of the cases, internal locus of control is desirable. By the internal locus of control, a person thinks that his or her ideal vision can actually be achieved, so is more likely to puts effort to get to it. Nevertheless, there are some clarifications to take into account: we are part of something bigger, we have to accept our own limitations (only worrying about what we can change) and we are better off combining our efforts with other people to achieve our goals.
People with an internal locus of control are more likely to take responsibility for their actions, tend to work hard to achieve the things they want and often achieve greater success in their job and personal life. Real entrepreneurs have, in general, a strong internal locus of control.
Just in some rare cases, when the person is not able to take control of his or her acts (lack of freedom, disability or mental problems) or presents too much self-indulgence, the external locus of control might be a wise behaviour, above of all, to avoid the self-blame.
Do you want to know which locus of control prevail in you?
Score between 0 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) the following statements:
- When a colleague is promoted, you think it’s mainly because of inertia of luck
- People have what they deserve
- Dreams are just dreams, and because of that, out of our scope
- What people consider coincidence is, actually, causality
- You can’t avoid feeling sad or depressed when it rains and happy when its sunny
- I never complain about my personal situation, even when I’m right
- Life is unfair; people with more initial resources are the ones than finally succeed
- Putting effort in doing things always pays off
- I’m not interested in politics; my single vote is useless
- Luck doesn’t exist; it’s all about creating the circumstances to succeed
- Sum up even numbers (2,4,6,8,10)
- Sum up odd numbers (1,3,5,7,9)
- Substract (1) - (2)
Results:
- Positive (from 25 to 0). You probably tend to have an internal locus of control. The higher the number, the stronger the internal locus of control.
- Negative (from 0 to -25). You most likely have an external locus of control. The lower the number, the stronger the external locus of control.
Where are you? Where do you want to be?
“I’m not what happened to me. I’m what I choose to become”
Carl Gustav Jung
