Locus Of Control Orientation

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A locus of control orientation is a belief about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do, which is internal control orientation or on events outside our personal control which is external control orientation (Zimbardo, 1985). The concept of Locus of control was introduced by Rotter (1954) and it refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control outcomes affecting them. Locus of control is viewed as a continuum, ranging from internality to externality. Individuals with internal locus of control believe that outcomes of events are resulted from their own actions whereas those with external locus of control attribute outcomes of events to the external sources like chance, fate and others (Rotter, 1954). …show more content…

Rotter developed an assessment tool, the internal external Locus of Control Scale (I-E Scale), that measures an individual’s perception of control along a continuum where internally controlled individuals (Intelligence) assume that their own behaviors and actions are responsible for what happens to them, whereas externally controlled individuals (Emotional) believe that control is in the hands of other people or outside events (Rotter, …show more content…

Participants with a high internal locus of control may not feel overwhelmed by the situation and may be more motivated to work hard because they believe there is a direct relation between their personal effort and their performance evaluation. Participants with a low internal locus of control may feel a disconnection between their efforts and performance, especially in a training environment where individuals are continually subjected to unfamiliar situations, unfamiliar equipment, and unfamiliar theory (Bradley & Nicol, 2006) as cited in (Anita, 2013). For the purpose of this research locus of control is described as a personality characteristic that distinguishes between people who see the control of their lives as coming from inside themselves as being internalizes and those people who believe that their lives are controlled by external factors are externalizes (Gibson et al.,