2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
Locus of control is a concept that determines the degree to which a person is convinced of his ability to influence his life. People who attribute control over life to themselves have an internal locus of control, and those who attribute control to external factors (fate, circumstances, etc.) have an external locus of control.
Weiner's attribution theory includes 4 factors to which people can attribute the causes of various events in life, their own actions, and their consequences. Factors are divided into stable, unstable, external and internal.
- Stable, internal - abilities (talent)
- Unstable, internal - skills, efforts
- Stable, external - the complexity of the task
- Unstable, external - luck
The main idea is not to try to control external factors (which, by definition, are beyond our control), but that we control our own attributions. We can explain the reasons for what is happening in different ways (external or internal factors), and this is entirely our responsibility.
By the way, in accordance with this theory, we also cannot control our abilities and talent. That is, we have only one factor left - efforts.
According to research, people with an internal locus of control (in comparison with people with an external locus of control) show more leadership qualities, initiative, tend to take on difficult tasks, show courage and determination, they more easily defend their interests in conflicts and determine manipulations. People with an external locus of control work on a task while receiving praise. People with an inner locus of control continue to work regardless of support and … do better. After all, they do not need so much recharge from the outside. People with an external locus give up faster in critical situations.
“May you be lucky”, “good luck at work / study / in a relationship”, “you have a talent for this” are pleasant words that we can quite often hear or use in our speech. But are they really useful? Are they supportive? Unfortunately no. Because we cannot control a situation in which we were lucky or unlucky, in which we showed talent or did not show, and where we began to pursue luck. We do not feel supported in ourselves, we are lucky today, and tomorrow this may not happen, and this increases anxiety. We remain lost in an unpredictable world, from which we do not know what to expect. And we become absolutely helpless in the face of fate. We cannot appropriate the success we have achieved due to a lucky coincidence, and we are afraid of failure, which depended on luck.
Also, attribution theory is directly related to motivation.
Imagine two people taking part in a race. One lost, the other won. The person who won will say that he put in enough effort and trained a lot, he will be confident in himself in the next race. The one who lost will say that he did not feel very well the day before the race, did not sleep well, had a fight with a loved one, and his sneakers were uncomfortable. He's unlikely to run again unless circumstances change.
A person's motivation to try himself in some business depends on his confidence in a positive result. If a person thinks they will lose, they are unlikely to put in enough effort. And why, if, as he believes, nothing depends on it anyway? Subsequently, after losing, he will receive confirmation of his beliefs.
Now the promised technique. Take a pen and a piece of paper. Write 5 (or more) statements, starting with “I can't …”
Have you written? Now, with the same statements, try changing “can't” to “don't want to”. If this was easy for you, you are the kind of person who has an inner locus of control. If the changes were accompanied by negative emotions and caused resentment, it was not easy for you - you have an external locus of control.
Remember that how you determine the causes of what is happening is entirely up to you.
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