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Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion pp 1369–1370Cite as

Locus of Control

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The Locus of Control (LOC) of reinforcement construct was originally developed by Rotter (1954, 1966) within the framework of his Social Learning Theory, along a unidimensional internal-external continuum. An important elaboration by Levenson (1981) divided the external contingencies into separate “powerful others” and “chance” dimensions. Broadly, the LOC construct measures the degree to which people believe that reinforcements (rewards and punishments) from the environment are contingent on their own efforts, actions, and personal decisions (internal LOC) on the one hand versus luck, fate, external circumstance, and powerful others (external LOC) on the other. A more internal LOC is generally positively associated with a range of indices of psychological and physical health. It is argued that many of these positive health effects reflect the adoption of more positive coping strategies in such individuals. Conversely, externality is typically associated with negative coping styles...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    Andrew J. P. Francis

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  1. Andrew J. P. Francis
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Correspondence to Andrew J. P. Francis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    David A. Leeming

  2. Blanton-Peale Institute, New York, NY, USA

    David A. Leeming

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Francis, A.J.P. (2020). Locus of Control. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_225

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