Locus of control is a term that is used to describe a person’s beliefs about who or what controls what happens in their life. To break this down even further, control is defined as the power to determine outcomes by directly influencing actions, people and events and locus is defined as a position, point or place. This means that you can have different positions of where you put your control. Overall, locus of control can be looked at as a continuum that has two extreme points, which are internal and external, and everything in between!
Someone with an internal locus of control believes that they have a large part in controlling their future, however, someone with an external locus of control will believe that things happen to them, and external events determines their future. Most people will shift back and forth between internal and external but will have a dominant style that they fall back to in most cases.
Understanding Locus of Control is important for future occupational therapy practitioners because it allows you to become self-aware of how you approach situations, friendships, and different circumstances in your own life. In addition, it is important to have a strong understanding to be able to work with and treat your future clients most effectively. For example, clients who are workman’s compensation and MVA patients tend to have more of an external locus of control. This means they blame others for what happened to them, and they feel like the only way for them to be “fixed” is with therapy physically helping them. However, this is not true. We as occupational therapists can teach them ways to reorganize their thoughts and help them to think in a more positive way, so that they can make improvements during the therapy session and at home! Some strategies that can help with improving a patient’s internal locus of control include, forming HEP with materials they have in their home, minimizing passive treatments and have the patient come in less often so that you can track their personal progress on their own (Meira, 2021). Overall, it is our goal as ethical providers to encourage our clients and teach them strategies to use an internal locus of control in their day to day lives.
Meira, E. (2015, May 28). Are your patients out of control? The Science PT. https://thesciencept.com/are-your-patients-out-of-control.
