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Locus of Control

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Submitted By tinaboutin
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Locus of Control
Tina Boutin
PSY/285
Oct. 26, 2014
Gavin Coriell

Locus of Control

There are two types of Locus of control, internal locus and external locus. The type of locus of control an individual has helps determine the person’s perception of events in their life. Locus of control also determines whether they believe they have control over these life events, or if they are determined based on the external forces which surround them. Individuals who have internal locus of control believe that their choices and behavior have an impact on their quality of life. Those with external locus of control believe that luck, fate, or other external forces are responsible for the quality of their life, (Myers, 2012, p. 51). There are good and bad points to internal and external locus of control, which relate to both, (Humphrey, 1999-2012).

I have completed and evaluated my responses to the Locus of Control Assessment and find that I have internal locus of control. This means that I believe I am generally in control of events that affect my life, an evaluation which I agree with. I believe that in order to change things in my life I don’t like, I have to make that change and not leave it up to chance or fate. Some positive examples of internal locus would be if studied hard and for my effort I received an A, or I entered a writing contest and I got chosen the winner. In these situations I controlled the events in my life, first by studying, and second for writing a paper that was deemed good enough to win. A negative aspect of internal locus would be if I was diagnosed with brain cancer, and blame myself and start feeling hopeless because I hadn’t done enough to keep myself healthy.

The positive aspect of external locus is that I can blame my situation on someone or something and say I had no control over it. Or I can say as with winning the writing contest, I just got lucky, it could have happened to anyone. A negative aspect of external locus would be if I got a D in my assignment. I would blame the fact that my family kept me too busy to study, therefore I wasn’t prepared for class that day. In my opinion it is better to have internal locus of control. People who have internal locus tend to be more responsible, successful, and are always looking for ways to improve their lives. People with external locus are less responsible, blame others for their failures, and are less motivated to get further ahead in life.

For me personally, I recently lost my son for unknown reasons, so this would be the negative aspect of internal locus. This was a situation beyond my control; one which I have to realize was completely out of my hands. I am still in the analyzing phase of this, but also starting to realize that anything I may have done differently wouldn’t have changed the outcome. For someone like me with internal locus, this is a hard thing to grasp.

References:

Myers, D. G. (2012). Exploring social psychology (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill
Humphrey, B. (1999-2012). External vs. Internal Locus of Control.
Retrieved from http://ehow,com/about_6499163_external-vs-internal-locus-control

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