What Is Locus Of Control In Psychology?
Locus of control (LC) is a term widely used in psychology. Especially in recent years. This term refers to the way in which a person perceives the causes of events that occur in his life.
In other words, it is about determining to what extent we consider ourselves responsible for the causes of our behavior. The locus of control can be external or internal.
In this sense, the locus of control is related to the psychological implications of the person’s point of view as well as the way in which the latter interacts with his environment. Let’s see what are the main characteristics of this concept.
The locus of control
Rotter introduced the concept of locus of control in 1966. The term locus comes from Latin and means “place”. He defined it as a personality trait in his theory of social learning. This idea was already popular with other authors a few years ago.
Rotter defined this concept as follows: ” If the person perceives an event as dependent on his behavior or his own relatively permanent characteristics, it is a belief inherent in internal control.”
He also considered that “a reinforcement is perceived as the consequence of a personal action, but being not entirely subordinate to it, it is generally perceived, in our culture, as the result of luck (…). In this sense, we speak of a belief specific to external control ”(Visdomine-Lozano and Luciano, 2006).
As can be seen, Rotter made a clear difference between internal control and external control. When a person attributes what is happening in their environment to their own behavior and considers that they are in control of the external consequences, then their locus of control is internal.
On the other hand, if she believes that what happened to her is only due to luck, chance or fate, that is to say that what happened is independent of her behavior, her locus control is external.
Consequence of this: If a person believes that what is happening around them is not up to their own will, they certainly will not take action to change it. So it is a kind of paralysis that prevents people from taking action and achieving their goals.
What is the difference between internal LC and external LC?
As we saw above, when a person has an internal locus of control, they consider the cause of success or failure to have an internal origin. Usually, she is more confident in her abilities, her efforts and her perseverance in accomplishing a task. She thinks that everything is under her control and thus achieves her goals.
When a person has an external locus of control, he considers that the results of his actions depend exclusively on external causes or factors. Therefore, she will tend to assume that the results of her efforts are not directly dependent on herself.
Thus, people with a strongly developed external LC have unstable expectations. Rather than fighting for a result, they wait and see if their wish will eventually be fulfilled.
Let’s take an example. A student who tends to have an internal LC will develop high self-esteem and show optimistic expectations for the future. His self-esteem involves acceptance, respect, and self-love.
In contrast, a student with a predominantly external LC will attribute their success to fate or luck. It will therefore be difficult for him to consider that success depends directly on himself. This may lead him to think that the future is not worth planning.
The concept of efficiency competence
When a person assesses their own ability to achieve their goals, they are measuring their competence for effectiveness. It may then consider itself effective or not. This competence is closely linked to the notion of internality. Internal attributions do more than anything else to build self-esteem.
On the other hand, the externality does not necessarily have to harm self-esteem. This is because people with an external locus of control sometimes tend not to feel responsible. This is especially the case when they don’t get what they really want.
How can we improve our locus of control?
The practice of mindfulness allows us to better understand the situations that arise in our daily life. Some studies like that of Hamarta, E. et al. published in 2013 in the International Journal of Academic Research demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.
The study even indicates that mindfulness is indicative of locus of control. There are clearly many benefits to practicing mindfulness daily for 20 minutes. It helps to find a balanced LC in each of the situations we may be confronted with.
Our thoughts Emotional self-control is that rescue boat that allows us to cope better with a large number of difficulties. Find out how to apply it …
