SAGE Reference - Encyclopedia of Social Psychology

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Locus of Control

In: Encyclopedia of Social Psychology
Edited by: Roy F. Baumeister & Kathleen D. Vohs
Subject:Social Psychology (general)
Keywords:locus of control

Who determines one's fate? Is it the person or outside forces beyond the person's control? This question lies at the root of the concept of locus of control. People who believe they are in control of their destinies have an internal locus of control (internals). Those who believe that luck and powerful others determine their fate have an external locus of control (externals).

Measurements

Locus of control is usually measured by questionnaires, just as personality traits are; however, locus of control is more an attitude than a trait—it measures how one thinks the world works. Some researchers have called locus of control a generalized expectancy—in other words, a person's usual expectation about how things work.

One of the first locus of control measures was Julian Rotter's Internal-External Locus ...

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  Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2007). Locus of control. In Encyclopedia of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 531-531). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n315
  
  Baumeister, Roy F., and Kathleen D. Vohs. "Locus of Control." In Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, edited by Baumeister, Roy F., and Kathleen D. Vohs, 531-531. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2007. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n315.
  
  Baumeister, R. F. and Vohs, K. D. 2007. Locus of Control. In: Roy F. Baumeister and Kathleen D. Vohs Editors, 2007. Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 531 Available at: <https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n315> [Accessed 23 May 2022].
  
  Baumeister, Roy F. and Kathleen D. Vohs. "Locus of Control." Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Edited by Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2007, pp. 531-531. SAGE Knowledge. 23 May 2022, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412956253.n315.
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