Locus of Control

Locus of control is a term used in the psychology profession to describe where one believes control over a situation really lies. The concept is really not that complicated, and this article will help to show how locus of control can be used to manage anxiety.

In relation to locus of control, there are two places in which one believes locus of control can lie: internally or externally. Having an internal locus of control means that one primarily believes the he or she has control over what happens in his or her life. Looking at a specific anxiety situation, for example, will show how this concept actually operates. Say a person has to take a big exam for college. A person with internal locus of control believes that he or she can take certain steps which will affect his or her grade and also help to manage his or her anxiety. An example of steps that he or she might take would be to attend class regularly, take good notes, study hard for the test, and put forth high effort on assignments. The person with internal locus of control believes that using these methods will give him or her a fair amount of control and the best opportunity to earn a high grade. Preparation helps to reduce test anxiety for many people, and other people may engage in specific techniques or therapies which also help to reduce anxiety during the test.

A person with an external locus of control, however, will handle the same situation much differently. Persons with an external locus of control tend to believe that things outside of their own personal sphere of power tend to have more control over those persons’ lives. When preparing for the same college exam noted previously, a person with an external locus of control will think that the teacher will write questions that are either too hard or too easy and that therefore studying is not necessary. He or she will also believe that reading the book coming to class, asking questions, or completing assignments will have little to no effect on his or her test grade because the teacher’s test have nothing to do with what is covered in the book or class. This person, in all likelihood, will not perform as well on the test as the person with an internal locus of control. His or her anxiety level would be difficult to predict, although it seems as though it would be higher than in the person in the first case because he or she is not prepared for the exam.

So, what general conclusion can be drawn from locus of control and how it affects a person’s anxiety level? Again, this is very hard to predict, but it seems that on the average, persons with a stronger orientation towards an internal locus of control would have lower anxiety levels than persons with a stronger orientation towards an external locus of control. Those more oriented towards an internal locus of control will take more steps to work on their anxiety because they believe that they can do something about it, and it does in fact seem to be the case that there are a myriad of techniques which do exactly that. Those more oriented towards an external locus of control will not take these steps and instead will leave up to some external forces that hopefully arrive in their life by some chance. In some cases, anxiety may be reduced by external events or people, but on the average, it seems as though one reduces his or her anxiety most by taking the steps he or she needs to take.

Finally, it must be noted that people very rarely are totally oriented towards one type of control. Rather, people fall on a continuum (more on this in The Nature of Anxiety), just like anything else. For example, many of those with an internal locus of control also realize that certain events occur in their life over which they have no control; for example, they cannot choose their parents, and neither can anyone else. The same goes for those with an external locus of control. For example, people in this group do realize they have some control of whether or not they have a job; people in this group do have some control as they have to actually physically get up and take the steps to get themselves to work; no one can do that for them.

Overall, it seems as though having an internal locus of control that also includes the belief that some things happen in one’s life over which one has no control is the most reasonable and anxiety-reducing locus of control to have. Good luck to anxiety-sufferers as they work with this additional knowledge!

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