Locus of control is the tendency to attribute success or failure to internal or external factors.
Introduced by social psychologist Julian Rotter in 1954.
The tendency to attribute performance to external factors is an external locus of control. A person with such a tendency is an External type.
The tendency to attribute results of activity to internal factors is an internal locus of control, a person with this habit is an Internal type.
The internal factors here are: one’s own efforts, one’s own positive and negative qualities, the presence or absence of the necessary knowledge, skills, and so on.
«Locus of control» is also called «localization of control of volitional effort»
For example, if a student received an unsatisfactory grade, then having an external localization of control, he will blame external factors (for example, “guests came to my parents and distracted me from doing my homework”, “the task was poorly written on the board”, etc.), and having an internal — to internal (for example, “I did not have time to properly prepare for the subject”, “I could not find a solution to the problem”, etc.)
The Rotter questionnaire is used to determine the locus of control.
How to develop internal locus of control?
First of all, get out of the position of the Victim.
The position of the Victim and the external locus of control (external personality type) are very close concepts, but not identical. A person with the position of the Victim is very similar to an external type of personality, when a person is convinced that his successes and failures depend primarily on external circumstances — environmental conditions, the actions of other people, chance, luck or bad luck, etc. However, the external type has its own successes and attributes success only to external factors, a person in the position of the Victim can attribute his successes to himself.