The locus of control, its types and manifestations

The locus of control is a property of a person that determines his tendency to attribute responsibility for his activity to external forces (the so-called external locus or external) or to personal efforts and abilities (internal, internal).

Self-monitoring

Relatively perfect mechanism of regulation and evaluation of cognitive processes is control. To the subject was able to realize and analyze his own actions, mental processes and states, he applies such a mechanism as self-control. Its appearance and improvement is determined by the requirements of the team for human behavior. Formed self-regulation helps an individual to control his behavior in various situations.

For this, there must be a standard and the ability to obtain information about controlled states and actions. In stressful situations - this is the object of strong-willed regulation.

It is consciously to regulate one's own states, motivations and actions, comparing them with certain subjective perceptions and norms, a person can as a result of self-control. It is necessary for the behavior of a person to meet the requirements of society, so it is a socially mediated phenomenon, inherent only to such a social being as a person.

Self-control makes it possible to realize an informed choice of the most acceptable and acceptable forms of response to the circumstances that develop around it.

Locus of control

In the form of the subject of control, the individual himself, the society as a whole, and the social environment act. The reaction of a person depends on whether he feels himself to be the master of fate or "swims by the will of the waves". Responsibility for control can also be attributed to either external forces or to own efforts and abilities. In any case, a person cares about what has already happened and who is responsible for how the event will end - he or fate, chance, i.e. All that can not be controlled. "The locus of control" is what is called in psychology the property of the individual to determine the source of what controls his life, the external environment or himself. This is a stable property of the individual, which is formed in the process of personal socialization.

Its locus of control can be determined with the help of a developed set of special techniques. This allows to some extent evaluate personal characteristics.

Those who refer themselves to people who have an inherent control locus are more likely to study well at school, do not smoke, use seat belts in the car, use contraceptives, solve family problems on their own, seek to earn a lot of money and easily give up the pleasures to achieve Strategic goals.

The degree of competence and well-being depends on how a person explains his failures. Most likely, you know students who consider themselves to be victims. They always blame their failures in learning on things that do not depend on their control - for example, on their own intellect, "bad" teachers, test papers and useless textbooks. This is the external locus of control.

Successful people with a high probability of assessing failure as an accident, believe that a new approach is needed to solve the problem. Insurance agents, whose locus of control is most likely internal, believe that failure is manageable, that you need to sell insurance policies as much as possible.

Differentials and internals also differ in the type of interpretation of social situations, in particular, in the way of obtaining information and in the mechanism of their causal explanation. The locus of control of internals provides greater awareness of the situation and problem, a higher responsibility than people-externals. "Pure" externals and internals practically do not exist. In any person there is a share of confidence in their own abilities, strengths and the proportion of dependence on circumstances.