Abstract
Psychological theorizing has for many years been captured in dualistic thinking that axiomatically enforces a break—either/or mentality—into the study of systemic phenomena. This includes the topic of control of reinforcement (locus of control—LoC—a classic research tradition introduced by Julian Rotter in 1966). From a systemic perspective, we need to overcome the limits of seeing LoC of either “internal” or “external” (or “primary” versus “secondary”). Thereby, by offering a dynamic understanding of LoC incorporating the complexity of the contextually situated and semiotically mediating human mind, the limits of the original model will be exemplified and overcome. This dynamic approach starts from cultural psychology and follows the ideas of individual meaning making processes through the personal past and available signs in semiotic mediation. A person develops expectancies for acting in situations through contextually situated experiences in the past while facing the future. Previously this generalization of expectancies was assumed to be inductively generalized through accumulation of experienced reinforcements in similar situations. In the new dynamic model, generalization of expectancies develops through abduction from earlier experiences in a specific context. This allows for a dynamic generalization of expectancies, thus potentially inhabiting a balanced LoC belief of both external and internal LoC at a given time on the basis of the situationally subjectively perceived impact of the past and present situation. Thus, control will inevitably be dynamic, and the point-like rigidity of a “locus” is questioned since a person will have different affective relations to every situation experienced due to the notion of irreversible time.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs42087-020-00127-5/MediaObjects/42087_2020_127_Fig1_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs42087-020-00127-5/MediaObjects/42087_2020_127_Fig2_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs42087-020-00127-5/MediaObjects/42087_2020_127_Fig3_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs42087-020-00127-5/MediaObjects/42087_2020_127_Fig4_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs42087-020-00127-5/MediaObjects/42087_2020_127_Fig5_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In more recent research, the concept is referred to as locus of control (LoC), which will also be the case in this article (Rotter 1975). The key issue involved is control belief rather than the actual reinforcement.
A Google Scholar search in February, 12, 2020, shows 30,214 citations of the Rotter (1966) article.
LoC elaborations have been seen in Burger (1989), Coster and Jaffe (1991); Declerck et al. (2006), Deschamps (1997), Gallagher et al. (2014), Galvin et al. (2018), Hall et al. (2006), Henry and Coster (1997), Joe (1971), Kelley and Michela (1980), Kormanik and Rocco (2009), Leotti et al. (2010), McConatha and Huba (1999), Morling and Evered (2006), Rothbaum et al. (1982), Rotter (1975, 1990), Seginer et al. (1993), Stipek and Weisz (1981), and Tangsrud and Smith (2000).
Carolina Marin won the China Open only 8 months after injury (Ganguly 2019, September 22).
References
Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87(1), 49–74. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.87.1.49.
Bamberg, M. (2011). Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity. Theory & Psychology, 21(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354309355852.
Bamberg, M. (2012). Narrative analysis. In H. Cooper, P. M. Camic, D. L. Long, A. T. Panter, D. Rindskopf, & K. J. Sher (Eds.), APA handbooks in psychology®. APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2. Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological (pp. 85–102). American Psychological Association.
Branco, A. U., & Valsiner, J. (1997). Changing methodologies: A co-constructivist study of goal orientations in social interactions. Psychology & Develo** Societies, 9(1), 35–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/097133369700900103.
Branco, A. U., & Valsiner, J. (2010). Towards cultural psychology of affective processes: Semiotic regulation of dynamic fields. Estudios de Psicología, 31(3), 243–251.
Burger, J. (1989). Negative reactions to increases in perceived personal control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(2), 246–256. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.56.2.246.
Coster, W., & Jaffe, L. (1991). Current concepts of children’s perceptions of control. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy. : Official Publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association, 45(1), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.45.1.19.
Dean, A. C. (2004). Splitting in normal and pathological populations from the perspective of predictive control theory: A reconceptualization. Theory & Psychology, 14(1), 29–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354304040197.
Declerck, C., Boone, C., & De Brabander, B. (2006). On feeling in control: A biological theory for individual differences in control perception. Brain and Cognition, 62(2), 143–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2006.04.004.
Deschamps, J.-C. (1997). Attribution or explanations in everyday life. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 6(1), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/135943297399268.
Gallagher, M., Bentley, K., & Barlow, D. (2014). Perceived control and vulnerability to anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic review. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 38(6), 571–584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-014-9624-x.
Galvin, B., Randel, A., Collins, B., & Johnson, R. (2018). Changing the focus of locus (of control): A targeted review of the locus of control literature and agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(7), 820–833. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2275.
Ganguly, S. (2019). Olympic champion Marin completes comeback with China title. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-badminton-china-marin/olympic-champion-marin-completes-comeback-with-china-title-idUSKBN1W70BN
Gergen, K. J. (2018). The limits of language as the limits of psychological explanation. Theory & Psychology, 28(6), 697–711. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354318811641.
Gigerenzer, G. (2010). Personal reflections on theory and psychology. Theory & Psychology, 20(6), 733–743. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354310378184.
Hall, N., Chipperfield, J., Perry, R., Ruthig, J., & Goetz, T. (2006). Primary and secondary control in academic development: Gender-specific implications for stress and health in college students1. Anxiety, Stress, & Co**, 19(2), 189–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615800600581168.
Henry, A., & Coster, W. (1997). Competency beliefs and occupational role behavior among adolescents: Explication of the personal causation construct. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy : Official Publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association, 51(4), 267–276. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.51.4.267.
Joe, V. (1971). Review of the internal-external control construct as a personality variable. Psychological Reports, 28(2), 619–640. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1971.28.2.619.
Kelley, H., & Michela, J. (1980). Attribution theory and research. Annual Review of Psychology, 31(1), 457–501. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.31.020180.002325.
Kormanik, M., & Rocco, T. (2009). Internal versus external control of reinforcement: A review of the locus of control construct. Human Resource Development Review, 8(4), 463–483. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484309342080.
Leotti, L., Iyengar, S., & Ochsner, K. (2010). Born to choose: The origins and value of the need for control. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(10), 457–463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.08.001.
Lewin, K. (1942). Field theory and learning. In H. B. Nelson (Ed.), The fortyfirst yearbook of the national society of learning part 2 the psychology of learning (pp. 215–242). Illinois: Public School Publishing Company.
Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. (Ed.) cartwright, D. Selected theoretical papers. New York: Harper & Brothers publishers. (pp. 238-303).
Macleod, C. (2006). Radical plural feminisms and emancipatory practice in post-apartheid South Africa. Theory & Psychology, 16(3), 367–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354306064284.
McConatha, J., & Huba, H. (1999). Primary, secondary, and emotional control across adulthood. Current Psychology, 18(2), 164–170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-999-1025-z.
Morling, B., & Evered, S. (2006). Secondary control reviewed and defined. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 269–296. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.269.
Penuel, W., & Wertsch, J. (1995). Vygotsky and identity formation: A sociocultural approach. Educational Psychologist, 30(2), 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3002_5.
Rothbaum, F., Weisz, J. R., & Snyder, S. S. (1982). Changing the world and changing the self: A two-process model of perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(1), 5–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.5.
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0092976.
Rotter, J. B. (1975). Some problems and misconceptions related to the construct of internal versus external control of reinforcement. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 43(1), 56–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076301.
Rotter, J. B. (1990). Internal versus external control of reinforcement: A case history of a variable. American Psychologist, 45(4), 489–493. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.45.4.489.
Salvatore, S., & Valsiner, J. (2010). Between the general and the unique. Theory & Psychology, 20, 817–833. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354310381156.
Seginer, R., Trommsdorff, G., Essau, C., & Seginer, R. (1993). Adolescent control beliefs: Cross-cultural variations of primary and secondary orientations. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 16(2), 243–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/016502549301600208.
Stipek, D. J., & Weisz, J. R. (1981). Perceived personal control and academic achievement. Review of Educational Research, 51(1), 101–137. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543051001101.
Strickland, B. R. (1989). Internal-external control expectancies: From contingency to creativity. American Psychologist, 44(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.1.1.
Tangsrud, R., & Smith, M. (2000). Control-related motivations, capabilities, and preferences among patients: The roles of primary and secondary control in older adulthood. Journal of Business Research, 48(3), 259–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(98)00091-5.
Valsiner, J. (2014a). Invitation to cultural psychology. London: SAGE Publications.
Valsiner, J. (2014b). Needed for cultural psychology: Methodology in a new key. Culture & Psychology, 20(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X13515941.
Valsiner, J. (2019). Hyper-generalization by the human mind: The role of sign hierarchies, presentation at the 4th Hans Kilian Preis Lecture, Bochum, April 28, 2017 (p. 2019). Giessen: Psychosozial Verlag.
Weisz, J. R., Rothbaum, F. M., & Blackburn, T. C. (1984). Swap** recipes for control. American Psychologist, 39(9), 974–975. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.39.9.974.
Wertsch, J. V. (2002). Voices of collective remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acknowledgment
A big thank to Jaan Valsiner and Jensine I. Nedergaard for comments and sparring on draft versions of this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bisgaard, C.H. Locus of Control in Dynamic Settings: a Semiotic Extension of an Old Theory. Hu Arenas 4, 542–562 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-020-00127-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-020-00127-5