Your locus of control
A made-up example that shows what you get after the test. Take the test to get your own result.
Internal or external?
Mostly internal
You see yourself as the one steering your life. Success comes from ability and effort, and setbacks are something you can do something about. That is linked to taking initiative, persisting and coping well with stress. The flip side is that you may blame yourself for things that really were outside your control.
Of the two external beliefs, powerful others weighs more for you than chance: you see other people and institutions, rather than luck, as what decides.
- Internal controlHigh · 75 of 100
- External controlLow · 34 of 100
External control is the average of the Powerful Others and Chance scales. The scores show where you are on the answer scale, not how you compare with other people. Low, average and high use the same limits as our Big Five test.
Levenson's three scales
The scales are scored separately, so you can be high on more than one. Someone can believe both that effort pays off and that powerful people set the limits.
Believing your own ability and effort decide what happens
You are convinced that what you do makes the difference. You expect effort to pay off, know why you do what you do, and feel able to stand on your own feet.
Believing other people and institutions decide what happens to you
You see other people's influence over your life as real but limited. Sometimes you feel at their mercy, often you do not.
Believing luck and fate decide what happens
You do not believe in luck or fate as the explanation for how life goes. Outcomes follow from ability and solutions, as you see it.
Growing internal control
Locus of control is a learned belief, so it can shift. These things move it towards the internal side, which is linked to better wellbeing and achievement:
- Split what happened into what you could influence and what you could not. Act on the first part and let the second go.
- Set goals you control (hours practised, applications sent) rather than outcomes you do not (the win, the job).
- When something goes well, name what you did that made it happen. Internal control grows from noticing your own part in successes.
- Treat setbacks as information about strategy, not as proof about luck or about you.
- Keep some healthy externality: not everything is on you. Accepting real limits is part of a realistic locus of control.
Good to know
- Julian Rotter introduced the concept in 1966 with a single internal–external scale. Hanna Levenson showed in 1981 that external beliefs come in two kinds, which is the model used here.
- An internal locus of control is linked to better health behaviour, job satisfaction and academic achievement, but the effects are modest and partly reflect circumstances: people with more real control tend to feel more in control.
- Locus of control overlaps with Big Five traits: internality goes with higher conscientiousness and lower neuroticism, and the Powerful Others scale with lower self-esteem.