Hello,

We are back with our class of psychology and mental health; it has been a while!

Where we learn and share with one another.

Today, we are talking about “Locus of Control”.

 

Locus of control is, in simple terms,

The extent to which an individual feels they have control over the events that influence their life.

 

Photo credit: Eternal Renewal Counseling

 

By this, I am looking at instances where

Something nice happens to you like being promoted at work….

You say to yourself that this was the work of your ancestors, this was a result of your tireless input of effort at work, or somebody set you up.

 

Your locus of control can be very important in determining how you respond to the events that happen in your life or what we can call, our attitude

Or even your motivation for taking action in your life or what we can call, our behaviour!

 

Photo credit: Medium

 

There is the internal locus of control

As well as the external one.

 

In the case of an internal locus of control,

There is a belief in the outcomes of our actions depending on what we do.

When you find yourself believing the outcomes of your actions depended on something beyond your control,

Then you are referring to an external locus of control.

 

There is a very important component of this concept.

It is that every human being lies in the grey area of these two loci…we all at one point, tend to be on the internal side of things and after a while, we are on the external side of things.

No one of us neither has 100% external nor internal loci of control!

 

Photo credit: CeDAR

 

With all these pointers,

You can ably determine if you are a person with a dominant internal or external locus of control.

 

– I’d love to hear from you; which of the two are you? –