Essay On Locus Of Control

There are numerous studies showing the relationships between the locus of control and age, personality, gender, so on, and so forth. Julian B. Rotter developed the idea of locus of control in 1954 in an attempt to better understand humans (Mearnes, 2009). Studies show the younger a person is, the more external their locus of control will be and that with age, their locus of control will become more internal. Locus of control, defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, is a cognitive style or personality trait characterized by a generalized expectancy about the relationship between behavior and the subsequent occurrence of reinforcement in the form of reward and punishment (Coleman, 2001). In other words, locus of control is how much
What I found interesting was that the 40-year-old was the only person with an internal locus of control. Is that because of age? Personality? After research it seems as though locus of control becomes more internal with age, “The Youth in Transition project, a longitudinal study, found that in adolescent boys, locus of control became more internal from tenth grade to one-year post-high school, with the greatest change occurring between the tenth and eleventh grades had similar results.” (Chubb, Fertman, & Ross, 1997). Locus of control can also be affected by self-esteem; the self-esteem of a high school student is much lower than that of someone middle aged so, the high school student needs approval of the outside world to feel good about themselves. Lastly, locus of control can be influenced by how a person feels about themselves and how others treat them.
In conclusion, having an internal locus of control will lead to more happiness than an external locus of control because one will have more belief in oneself. Also, the younger a person is, the more likely they are to have an external locus of control. One's locus of control could impede on their lives if they let it affect