While some people may not think personal responsibility is very important in getting through life, it has a lot to do with succeeding in life goals. Personal responsibility is needed to finish high school, attend college, choose a career, get married, have children and continue living a successful live. The main point that will be talked about more that personal responsibility is needed for is attending college. Some people graduate high school and they think that is all the education they need for the rest of their lives. However other people finish high school and decide they want to further their education in order to be able to get a better job or even go on to have a career in the field they chose to study.
Furthering your education and personal responsibility have some things in common like making sure you have your priorities straight. Without the right priorities and path you will not be able to be successful with either one. There are plenty of people in the world that choose to be selfish and put themselves before others including their own family and/or friends. Then there are those few people that choose to place others including complete strangers before themselves. Either decision has positive and negative sides to it. Another common thing between education and personal responsibility is to be liable for the work you do, whether it is school work or the work being done for an employer.
To be successful with attending college you must have an internal locus of control and practicing personal responsibility by holding yourself accountable for your actions. The researcher studies have indicated that students with poor study skills have lower academic achievement than those with good study skills (Hilawani and Sartawi 1997; Blustein et al., 1986). According to Findley and Cooper (1983) when the studies were reviewed it concluded that positive locus of control and academic achievements are significantly and positively. They must also identify their educational goals, and use time management strategies effectively. Kalechstein and Nowicki (1997) concluded that locus of control predicted significant differences in academic achievement with an internal locus of control significantly and positively related to academic success. Sisney et al., (2000) reported that locus of control has been associated with school success since the 1966 Coleman Report. In addition to having an internal locus of control you also need to incorporate effective strategies in order to be successful as a student. This includes making sure people around you are not coping your work. Also ensure that the area around you is kept clean and ready to learn either for yourself or others. It will also help to have a personal timetable that will assist to manage time during study hours and to reduce time wastage during other activities. There may also be need to review plans and goals now and then for better performance. Goal setting enables one to review their personal progress. Goals also provide a sense of purpose to a student as they focus on their actions and activities towards one major goal. By breaking down goals into daily goals, monthly goals, and yearly goals you have a better chance of actually succeeding with the goals that are placed. Sources: -Charles, Chester (2008). Building Classroom Discipline Boston: Pearson Education-Bourbon, Thomas. (1994) Discipline at Home and at School: New York: Brandt -Reiss, Stephen. (2010) what Happened to personal responsibility? Volume 8 Chicago, Journal of Psychology. Today there are far too many people who do not take responsibility for themselves or their actions. Society has made it all too easy to just blame someone else for your mistakes or down falls and then the person you blame will then blame someone else and so on until the person trying to get the truth finally just gives up. People also do a lot of scapegoating still to this day. Scapegoating is the act of blaming and often punishing a person or a group for a negative outcome that is due, at least in large part, to other causes. Infamous historical examples of scapegoating include the witch trials that occurred in Europe and North America from the 14th to the 18th century, when members of Christian institutions accused thousands of people (mostly women) of corrupting society’s moral integrity by practicing witchcraft, and the Nazis’ attempted extermination of Jews and other minority groups for their alleged responsibility for Germany’s economic collapse. Scapegoating continues to occur today in various forms. Whether it is politicians blaming China for the worldwide economic recession (Chen, 2010), Americans blaming Muslims for all incidents of terrorism (Foley, 2011), or religious fundamentalists blaming homosexual individuals for the decline of traditional American values (Eckholm, 2011), people seem all too eager to heap blame onto others for major misfortunes. It is therefore surprising that, after receiving a flurry of theoretical and empirical attention during the 1940s and 1950s (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950; Allport, 1948, 1954/1979; Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, & Sears, 1939; Hovland & Sears, 1940), the topic of scapegoating has largely receded from focus in contemporary social psychology. Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 102(6), Jun, 2012. pp. 1148-1163. Personal responsibility is to be accountable for one’s actions. If you make a mistake admit it and fix the problem the mistake might have made, you will get a lot further and others will think more of you for doing it. Compared to if you were to try and “brush it under the rug” and move on to the next task. Personal responsibility is also to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done not whenever you feel like doing it. Everyday people have lists of things to do, but many of those things do not get finished due to the fact that the person needing to do them decides it is not that important or that they can put it off for another day. Usually another day comes and goes and a lot of the things still do not get finished.
Some negative ways not having personal responsibility or a college education can affect someone’s life is they can end up at a dead end and not have any choices or options available to them. They could end up being in their thirties and be still living at home with their parents. There is a possibility that they will never get married or have children because they did not get out and do anything with their lives. Then again there are those people who made the choice to have personal responsibility and they went to college and received a degree. Those people more than likely have their own home, a significant other, and possibly children. They also are more than likely independent and happy with their lives.
All in all, there comes a time when people have to step up and take personal responsibility for their actions and their own lives. Along with doing that they really should consider to further their education and attend some form of college. In the long run they will benefit tremendously by doing this! They will be happier with themselves and their family and friends will look up to them too. Life will be a lot easier with a career rather than having a minimum wage job that barely pays all the monthly expenses.