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Locus of Control
Your locus of control is center of your world view. What you see and how you see is dependent on this factor.
Locus of control is a psychological concept that defines; how strongly people believe they have control over the situations and experiences that affect their lives.
When something goes wrong, it’s obvious to blame the perceived cause of the trouble. When an individual cast that blame on something, which can be related to a psychological construct known as “locus of control.”
Your locus of control is internal or external?
Do you often think that whatever is happening to you is beyond your control? Do you feel conquered, overburdened, or you feel like you want to do so many things but there is no time for what you want to do? Do you often use the phrases like “I can’t because…,” “I have to…,” and “I don’t have…?” Then your locus of control is external.
And if you feel empowered to make the required changes you want to see in your life and you are aware of the effort it has taken to get you this far and you are determined to positively affect change in the present and future; in that case your locus of control is Internal.
Sense of Agency:
Locus of control refers to the degree to which someone feels a sense of agency with regard to his or her life and career.
An individual with an internal locus of control will believe that the things that happen to him/her are significantly influenced by their own abilities, actions, or mistakes.
Someone with an external locus of control will tend to believe that other forces, such as random chances, environmental factors, actions by others, and the luck factor etc. are more responsible for the events that occur in the individual’s life.
Like other constructs in personality psychology, locus of control falls on a spectrum. Genetic factors as well as an individual’s childhood experiences contribute a lot in forming this.
What does Research say about this?
In a research at Columbia university in 1998; A group of kids was given some task and at the end of the task, the kids were given a feedback.
The researchers share with half of the kids that they did a good job and it was because of their talent and the other half of the group got the feedback that they did good job and it was because of their hard work.
This feedback was obviously not based on their performance and was to see how do they perform in next task (more complex than previous one) based on this feedback.
Interestingly, the result of next task revealed that the kids who were told that the results in their previous task was because of talent, didn’t do well enough in this situation. Though the other group, who was told that their result was a reflection of hard work, did much better job. Now this is an excellent example of locus of control.
The 1st group who believed that the success is linked with talent, which is definitely not in our control, kept on waiting for something to happen on its own. Whilst the other group had the locus of control inside them and they felt they have control on what all they can do. And it reflected in their efforts and performance.
Researchers have identified several areas in which one’s sense of control appears to affect outcomes, including education, health, and civic engagement. Overall, such research has generally suggested that those with a more internal locus of control are more successful, healthier, and happier than those with a more external locus.
In many cases, having an internal locus of control can be a good thing. It means that you believe that your own actions have an impact. But if you tend to have more of an external locus of control, you might find it helpful to start actively trying to change your perspective.
Instead of viewing yourself as a spectator who is caught up in the flow of life, think about actions you can take that can have some impact on the outcome. That’s the best shot you can give to achieve success in career and life.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” – Carl Gustav Jung