…………………….My Course: My Self-Efficacy and Locus of Control……….………..
Name: Me Concept Paper No: 1
Course/Yr: BS Psychology 2 Date: 2 – 8 – 15

In the recent years of being a psychology major, I have learned many things including, but not limited to, the foundations and an overview of psychology, the various people that have contributed to this ever growing field of science, and of course, the schools of thought. One of these schools of thought is behaviorism, and among the many in this area are the two men, Albert Bandura, and Julian Rotter, who introduced the concepts of self-efficacy and the locus of control respectively. Self-efficacy refers to the person’s belief in herself, her capacity to do and accomplish things- her esteem, while the locus of control refers to what the person attributes something to, her failures, for example- was it because she herself did not try hard enough, or was it because something or someone else ruined it for her?
Dwelling on these two concepts now, I believe they can both be summarized into a quote from a prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr, which goes… “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
As a psychology major… a student, and I think it applies to everyone else as well, it all boils down to the simple line that I mentioned. Our choices, our decisions… it all depends upon what we choose to do. The self-efficacy and the locus of control are reflected in the quote because as human beings, we all think rationally, and we know where we lie in the greater scheme of things, we all get to know our strengths and weaknesses at one point or another- and we all know that sometimes, there are simply things that we have no control over, we recognize that we are also helpless to some aspects and happenings of the universe.
After being introduced to these concepts again and again, I believe now, that in psychology, mastering these two will be the most useful and the most beneficial to us in the future. As our teacher always tells us, being a psychology major means going out of your comfort zone, getting to know and getting intimate with things that one has, in a way, no control over… and in the process, discovering and cementing our belief in our capabilities.
I have just now realized, actually, as I write this concept paper, that perhaps, this course, and after graduation, this profession, is all about submitting ourselves into situations that are outside our locus of control- submitting ourselves to the mercy of something new all the time, every time, and realizing our own capacity to actually do something about it… and if not, being wise enough to admit that maybe it is not ours to meddle with.
Again, I would go back to the quote in relation to the concepts of self-efficacy and locus of control… (1) all it takes is a little serenity to admit that sometimes, we cannot always be the conductor of the symphony that is life, (2) all it takes is a little courage to tell ourselves that yes- yes! I can do something and change something about whatever it was that I thought I had no control over… (3) and last, but definitely not the least, having a little wisdom to tell the difference, so that we may not mope and tell ourselves the cliché “There’s nothing I can do.”, or the opposite and desperate, “There must be something I can do.”.
As Sister Serafica once told us… life will always be a series of yes and no’s… we cannot always be in control, but at the same time, we cannot always just let ourselves believe that we cannot control anything… especially now in my life as a student.