LOCUS OF CONTROL

Locus of Control



Locus of Control

Introduction

Locus of control is a concept in psychology that characterizes the property of the individual to attribute their successes or failures to internal or external factors. Tendency to attribute performance to external factors is called an "external locus of control (externality). Tendency to the external attribution increases the helplessness of man. The Tendency to attribute the results of internal factors is called an "internal locus of control (internality). Internal factors here are the personality traits of the individual: their efforts, their own positive and negative qualities, the presence or absence of the required knowledge, skills, etc. People who consider themselves responsible for the state of their affairs (internal attribution), are able to do more successful acts but it is also more prone to experience feelings of guilt for events that are happening to them (Sue & Sue, 2003).

Health Locus of Control

The condition in which people have the ability to influence or know what is happening to themselves, or what will occur to them, those people will be considered to be “in control.” Control is actually core psychological construct, and the scenario of being in the condition of control is a universally accepted and desired condition of persistence for myriad among us. If we take the example of health care sector, the subject of control has been always linked to outcomes of positive health. Control can be either a real phenomenon or illusion of mind (Taylor & Brown, 1988). In case of illusion, it is the perception of control that matters because the quantity of real control that we can have over our condition of health is restricted. Whether or not an individual can actually affect health outcomes and behaviour, the thinking that one has control is most of the times sufficient to get its benefits.

Locus of Control

The term “locus of control” was coined by Rotter (1966) to refer to beliefs of an individual as to whether control of different outcomes is internal— that is, due to what the particular individual does or what is his identity versus the factors that are external. For instance: due to the actions made by other individuals, luck, or fate. LOC is a construct of expectancy within the social learning theory of Rotter's (1954). Expectancies which are generalized are trait like in that they guide behaviour across myriad conditions in respect to many inputs. Rotter (1966) termed locus of control as being one-dimensional, and the scale he developed that is I-E Scale to assess this construct was also scored in the same manner: an external belief orientation was reflected by high scores on the I-E Scale, while “internals were reflected by low scorers.”

Problems Defining Locus of Control

A wealth of literature was published when the concept of LOC was first introduced. Amongst many criticisms, it was known that this concept of LOC is studied in isolation and it neglects other aspects of SLT of Rotter. It excludes other component which includes the importance of the rein ...