Internal Locus of Control

Locus of control is a term meaning the degree in which people believe they have control over the outcome of events in their lives. This concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter and has had influence in personality studies. The "locus" is determined as either internal, meaning that one can control one's own life or external, meaning that one's life is controlled by outside factors that they cannot influence. The locus of control is scored on a scale from 0-23. 0 leans toward having a very strong internal locus of control and 23 leans toward having a very strong external locus of control. I assume most people fall on this scale more like a spectrum leaning more towards one side than the other.

My score following the questionnaire was an 8. This means that I point more towards having an internal locus of control. I truly do see that as I am an optimist and also a realist and believe that we often have to create our own luck in this world and believe we have a choice in how we respond to our challenges. I also see however how I am not a perfect 0 as I do believe people have to deal with ignorant external forces in our world due to their sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation and have to work much much harder than some people who were born into a more "acceptable" body or life to get to the place they want to be. As a future practitioner I hope to find a happy medium between the two of these and continue pushing myself through my internal locus of control to be the best therapist I can be as that is my method of motivation. However, I want to continue to tap into the empathetic nature of the external locus of control when I am working with clients who weren't dealt the easist hand in life due to the harshnest of our world and how it treats them. This will hopefully in turn work hand-in-hand to mold me into being a culturally competent, empathetic, and client-centered therapist which is very important to me.

Information gathered from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_of_control