Locus of Control – A Core Limiting Belief

Locus of Control – What It Is & How It Impacts Your Life

Although the ‘Locus of Control‘ sounds rather technical, it is in fact a rather straightforward concept which was developed by Julian Rotter in 1954 and has stood the ‘test of time’ in terms of being persistently shown to be a valid ‘construct’.

This concept is also associated with Attribution Theory.

It is a ‘measure’ of how much ‘power’ (or influence) you believe you have over the path of your life, or the outcomes in your life.

Your Locus of Control is either ‘internal’, ‘external’ or at some point in between the these two extremes.

If you have in ‘external’ Locus of Control then you will tend to believe that:

Life is something that HAPPENS to you over which you have little ability to control or change things

If you have an ‘internal’ Locus of Control you will tend to believe that:

Life is what you MAKE IT and that you decide the path of your life and are able to control and change things

What research shows is that people who have an internal Locus of Control tend to be happier, more successful and less likely to suffer from psychosomatic problems.

You can read much more about the Locus of Control and Rotter’s original research here.

Learn How To Develop a More ‘Internal’ Perspective

It doesn’t really matter how ‘external’ your LOC is at the moment, they key point is that, as is the case with the other core limiting beliefs, you CAN learn how to change your Locus of Control using the proven tools and techniques that we deliver in the Tranceformental CBT Programme, and by doing so, you can take control of aspects of your life that you previously didn’t believe you could!

Below are examples of both internal and external beliefs

Internal LOC

• I failed my driving test because I made an error
• I can beat my phobia of flying if I try hard enough
• Other people’s opinions are valid but do not affect my life
• If I wanted to run a marathon and trained enough I could do it
• Things that happened to me in the past are gone and have no influence now

External LOC

• I failed my driving test because the examiner didn’t like me
• Phobias can never be changed, just learnt to live with
• Other people’s opinions significantly affect my life
• I could never run a marathon, I’d never get fit enough
• Things that happened to me in the past continue to dominate my life everday

Transform Your Thinking & Develop an Internal Locus of Control

If you’d like to become more ‘internal’ (develop a more internal locus of control) then we highly recommend following our Advanced Tranceformental CBT programme with Paul. Tranceformental CBT is available as Online Therapy if required.

The Tranceformental programme is a highly successful & pragmatic mental health counselling course, run over 10 sessions, that will teach you everything you need to know to understand your problem, identify how unhelpful thinking and limiting beliefs might be reinforcing the issue, and then show you how to make any changes to your unhelpful thinking styles or maladaptive safety behaviours that you may have developed as part of your coping strategies.

Our Tranceformental CBT programme is an evidence-based, research supported approach used by mental health practitioners around the World.