Hi, I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution, putting the pieces together. Today, we're going to talk about internal and external locus of control, so the degree to which human action or choice can influence change or control, specific events, and situations. So a locus of control is a cultural worldview position, so worldview position that specific cultures take on, and it deals with the degree that humans can change or influence events. And there are two types of locus of control that we're going to talk about, and those are internal and external.
Internal locus of control believes that individuals are control of-- are in control of their circumstances. And this is also known as non-fatalism. So it really depends upon a human effort and drive to define your future. A good example is the saying, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps." So you are in control of what happens to your destiny, and only you and your effort and your drive can make things happen.
Another example could be let's say you failed an exam. Well, it's your fault that you didn't study hard enough or you didn't ask enough questions in the class, or you didn't go to your class, or whatever the circumstances are. It's your fault that you failed the exam rather than maybe external factors out there, such as your teacher not explaining some of the concepts that were on the exam. So internal locus of control really is the cultural worldview where people believe that individuals are the ones in control of the circumstance.
On the other side, we have external locus of control, and this worldview really believes that outside forces control circumstance. And it also can be called or known as fatalism. And here, we believe, or this worldview takes on, that human effort is subordinate. So it doesn't matter what we are doing or the drive or the effort we put in, there are some other external factors out there that really are in more control of our circumstances.
Let's say, for example, religious beliefs. Maybe people hold specific religious belief and believe that they are doing a certain thing for a purpose or they're here for a specific reason outside of themselves. Also, we see this in social factors or the system. External locus of control also sees that there are factors that are dealing with systematic, so maybe rules or regulations that are prohibiting or determining our circumstances.
We also need to be aware that these cultural worldview positions are not absolute, and that not every single member of a specific culture takes on these worldviews identically, but these are broad assumptions and expectations of what is true for that specific culture. So we want to be sure that we are aware that not every single case is the same in a specific culture. So how does this relate to or how are we going to connect internal and external locus of control to conflict resolution? Well, for one, just being aware of these two differing worldviews is important to know, and that they may be expressed and felt in conflict or conflict resolution.
So let's use the example that there is a late rent check, and one person that has a fatalist worldview may say, it was late. I was caught in traffic and the post office closed. It was things outside of my control that I didn't get to the post office in time to mail the check to you so it would be there by the first of the month.
Whereas a non-fatalist response could be something like, you should have left earlier or took a different route. It's really your individual choice that controls the circumstances. It's your job to have it to me on time, no excuses. So here, we can see how these two differing worldviews can come into play in a conflict and how we need to approach it or recognize it in a conflict resolution.
Let's look at our key points on internal and external locus of control. These are our cultural worldview positions that we take on and influence our actions and events. And an internal locus of control believes or takes on the position that individuals have control over their circumstances, whereas external locus of control really sees that events are controlled outside of our individual control and more by forces that we can't have a say in our control over. And we express these world views when we are in conflict and in conflict resolution, and so recognizing these two different worldviews is really beneficial in going through a conflict resolution process.
Here are your two key terms before we go. Feel free to pause and look at them a little bit closer. Thank you so much for taking the time out to view this. I hope that you've learned something. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.
