External Locus Of Control Research Paper

541 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Brief Essay on Leadership Styles

Leadership serves as a prime example of how an internal or external locus of control can apply. Those who have an external locus of control are susceptible to believing that the right circumstances produce an effective leader. Externally focused people believe, "without the right luck, one cannot be an effective leader." In addition, people who have an external locus of control rely on other's opinions of their leadership abilities. Throughout high school, I witnessed several potential leaders become submissive during group projects because they felt inadequate in some form. Oftentimes they were the least familiar member of the group, which could lead to additional anxiety. However, I also watched leaders who had a clear internal locus of …show more content…

One who has an external locus will believe "heredity is the main factor in determining one's personality." Since they believe in circumstance, they will come to blame their family for poor personality traits. Examples of such behavior can be found in those with internet addiction. Research on internet addiction has discovered those who are addicted are likely to have an external locus of control (Chak and Leung 567). Compared to those who believe genetics dictate their lives, others with an internal locus of control are convinced "it is one's experiences in life which determine what that person is like." Knowing they possess control over their perceptions, they choose to limit negative situations and persevere. A key personality factor common among people who rely on experience is responsibility, which is inherit in Julian Rotter's theory of the internal locus of control. Unlike those who consider themselves victims due to their circumstances, the "experience" group will have a history of taking responsibility for their actions. Additional support for self-responsibility associated with a locus of control can be found in learner

Show More
Related

  • External Locus Of Control: Internal And External Locus Of Control

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone has different opinions on whether they have an internal or external locus of control.

    Read More

  • Bill Cosby's Theory Of Personality Essay

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social cognitive theory states that behavior and personality is mostly influenced by the person, their thinking, and their social context. People often learn certain behaviors through conditioning and imitation of others, creating a personality that is strongly influenced by something other than their self. Bandura also emphasized that in social cognitive theory, we focus on how we interact with our surrounding environment, rather than how the environment controls us which is better known as reciprocal determinism. Julian Rotter also created a theory about how we have a generalized disposition to believe that our rewards based on past experiences comes from our internal and external locus of control, often referred to as attributional style. Internal meaning that you are in charge of your fate, which creates a self bias, causing you to feel as if you are better than you actually are. Whereas external locus, your rewards are determined by outside forces, leading to learned helplessness because there is nothing you can do to control your fate. Bill Cosby relied solely on his external locus of control, for he doesn’t attempt to prevent his harsh behavior from being seen. However, his behavior expresses the idea that Cosby exists in a world of self bias, and thinks that he is better than he actually is, causing him to attempt to shape the environment to like him in that ideal way. Bill Cosby also may see himself as controlling or out of control , rather than being controlled by the environment, which helps explain why he might of felt the need to take advantage of

    Read More

  • Origins of Leadership and Power

    2721 Words  | 6 Pages

    Mullen, Brian, Cynthia Symons, Li-Tze Hu and Eduardo Salas. "Group Size, Leadership Behavior, and Subordinate Satisfaction." The Journal of General Psychology. v116 i2 p155, Apr. 1989.

    Read More

  • Leadership And Antonakis: The Nature Of Leadership

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    Leadership can be defined as the method in which one influences a group of individuals for a common goal. There have many great leaders in the world but these leaders are not born leaders. One must have willpower and the desire to become an effective leader. These leaders become dependent upon based upon their abilities and their success. A leader is looked upon for guidance and the inspiration to know what the right thing to do is. The theoretical foundations of the research of leadership are firmly supported. To better understand the foundations and understand the focus of leadership, it is essential to have knowledge of the history of leadership, the meaning and concept of leadership, types of leaders and leadership styles, and issues in leadership such as issues with culture and gender. According to Antonakis (2004), “leadership researchers have struggled for most of the last century to put together an integrated, theoretically cohesive view of the nature of leadership, invariably leading to disappointment in those who studied it” (p.4). An overview of the history of leadership is necessary to understand the concept of leadership because it also provides a framework for other areas of leadership. In any conventional group, individuals fill different role and one of those roles must the leader which is essential for the group to achieve it purposes.

    Read More

  • Effective Leadership and Social Identity Theory

    3216 Words  | 7 Pages

    Lord, R. (2000). Leadership. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology, vol. 4. (pp. 499-505). Doi:10.1037/10519-216

    Read More

  • Leadership and Team Building

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    “A manager manages using authority-or the right to get others to do things by virtue of their positional power. While a leader leads through the ability to influence other people to do things using a certain degree of personal power or charisma” (McLean, 2005, p. 16). By definition, leadership is about influence. Therefore, it is impossible to discuss the theme of leadership without including followers or to try to explain the idea of team building without explaining the influence of a leader. While each concept is unique, both have a direct affect on the other. A leader is not a leader without someone following him or her and a team will always develop a leader whether indirectly or directly appointed. However, leadership and team building are much like the preverbal chicken and egg; and many theories have developed over several years trying to explain the influence on each other and the successful development of teams and leaders.

    Read More

  • Antisocial Personality Disorder Essay

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Personality is the combination of thoughts, emotions and behaviors that makes everyone unique. It 's the way people view, understand and relate to the outside world, as well as how they see themselves. Personality forms during childhood, shaped through an interaction of these factors: Genetics and Environment.” (Staff M. C., 2013) Genetics plays a major role in a person’s life because this has to deal with the person’s genes, DNA, and also traits. Each individual inherited two copies of genes, one from each parent. The type of genes passed down to a child can affect the lifestyle of that child if there are any possible disorders or diseases. The environment around us shapes who we are as an individual. Different environments gives off different behavioral skills. If there are any negative influences in the environment, such as violence in the home or community, this solely affects the way an individual is

    Read More

  • The 3 Levels of Discipleship Taught by Jesus Christ

    1546 Words  | 4 Pages

    Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

    Read More

  • Social Work Group Analysis

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    Particularly, two members within my group began to emerge as leaders due to their knowledge, skills, as well as experience working with our chosen population. Although I always view them as ‘experts’ in this topic, our group became less focused on our goals and more concerned about the ‘power struggle’ between our two leaders, before we could reach any consensus. Essentially, our group had two authoritarians butting heads and trying to take lead throughout the beginning of the group process. Thus, the other members or ‘followers’ contribution, like mine, seem to not matter unless they adhered to either leaders’ opinions without question. According to Stringer (2014), “Leadership… Is defined according to its function of facilitating organizational and operational processes, rather than defining and controlling them” (p. 31). The researcher further states that active participation is the key to encourage and motivate group members to invest their time and energy to shape the quality of the group's production. Therefore, our group needed to find ways for all members to have a chance to participate fully and apply their individual strengths, in order to enhance our group’s

    Read More

  • Biological Approach To Personality

    2791 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Biological approach to personality places emphasis on the genetic influences related to the development of an individual’s personality. Some may believe that children and their parents can have very similar personalities, for example a young boy having his father’s anger (Stelmack, 1990). Though this approach has often been questioned by psychologists, it is not disregarded all together. Some believe that genetics do have a role in an individual’s personality development; however environments, as well as personal experiences all work in forming personality.

    Read More

  • Attribution Essay

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first theory is the fundamental attribution error. This theory argues that people tend over estimate the role of dispositional factors and underestimate the situational factors. Psychologists argue that this is such a common error because humans tend to think of themselves as flexible, and ever changing. People do not like to think of themselves as a “type” of person. When a person does not have enough information to make a balanced decision they attribute behavior to disposition. In Western culture placing the blame on the individual is a common practice. An important study to investigate fundamental attribution is Lee et al. (1977). The aim of his experiment was to see if students would make the fundamental attribution error even when they knew that all the actors were just playing a role. In the study, Lee assigned students a role. They were assigned as either a game s...

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: Self Personality Assessment

    686 Words  | 2 Pages

    Based on the test results my locus of control is external. According to our text, Individuals who fall into this category do not believe that their future is within their control. They believe that it is more influenced by external forces. I agree somewhat with this assessment of myself. Although I also feel that some portions of our lives can be influenced greatly by our own inner desires and motivations. My interests are also centered on the outside world. This is consistent with the description at the end of the exercise. I thrive in situations where I can be around and mingle with large groups of people. I grew up in a very large family and this helped to shape my personality. However, I do enjoy quiet time and occasionally working on my own.

    Read More

  • Leadership: A Self Reflection

    993 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.

    Read More

  • Entrepreneurship and Need of Achievement

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another important characteristic it measures is the locus of control. It is an ability by which an individual makes a perception about the underlying main causes of events in his life. If individual believes that he/she has control over the outcomes though their own abilities such as attributes, hard work and decision making then it is known as internal locus of control whereas, In case of external locus of control, individual believes that they don’t have any influence on the outcomes and believes in external forces such as fate and luck (Rotter 1966). According to (Rotter 1966), individual who has higher achievement motivation show more characteristics of internal rather than external locus of control.

    Read More

  • What Is The Role Of Heredity And Environment In Shaping The Environment?

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    Heredity is one of the important factors that contribute to the formation of human personality. It refers to the biological process of transmission of certain biological and psychological characters from parents to children through genes. This genetic inheritance received by every individual at the time of conception is referred to as Heredity. As such the physical character of a person, like height, weight, color of skin, eyes, hair, social and intellectual behavior are all determined by heredity. It influences man’s social behavior too.

    Read More

More about External Locus Of Control Research Paper

Open Document