Locus (place) of control can be perceived as internal or external. Intrinsic motivation is the act of engaging in behavior for pleasure or gratification associated with the activity; extrinsic motivation is when one participates in an activity to obtain external reward such as economic rewards/awards. Baron and Ganz (1972) theorized the relationship between locus of control and the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The relationship between locus of control and motivation is the passage between perception and productivity which becomes a factor when it comes to managing people.
Julian Rotter, the American psychologist, defined the basis of how our perception can influence events that happen to us. Rotter developed a 23-item scale that assesses if a person’s tendency to think situations/events are under their control or external influences. The norm of this scale is that scores are in the outer direction, meaning the higher the score, the more external it is. The 14 th score on the scale states that certain people are just no right and the other part says that there is some good in everybody. This means that intrinsic factors are attributed to the little product in everybody that can be controlled while the fact that certain people are no proper means that it is extrinsic, one has no control over this outcome.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Attribution theory states that it is usually standard for people to look for explanations attributed to their success or failure. Attribution style is a cognitive approach to motivation, and the critical element is perception. Individuals who attribute successful outcomes to internal causes display intrinsic motivation while individuals who customarily attribute successful results to external factors display extrinsic motivation. This is because a self-motivated person is responsible for any outcome including failure while the individual having external reasons will avoid self-responsibility for any shortcomings. Therefore success and failure as results affect motivation in various ways depending on nature of the attribution (Weiner, 2005). High achievers attribute failure to unstable, controllable factors such as low effort ” (Weinberg & Gould, 2007, pg. 74)
The link between attribution and motivation resonates with personal learning experience because it helps cater for self-determination needs and grant one a degree of autonomy. In the case of learning experience like the performance of a student, poor performance may be attributed to lack of preparedness or quality of the test. Locus of control will help us understand better. One perspective can be that the outcome of poor performance is caused probably by a person’s mood, which is intrinsic and can be controlled. The other aspect could be that the deficient performance could be attributed to the student’s parents, which in this case will be an extrinsic factor that the student has no control over. These intrinsic and extrinsic attributing motivations may cause emotional unrecognizing that affects one judgment/decision making. Therefore, one should control and consider both internal and external motivations to make profound judgments about different experiences.
‘ Everyone is a naïve psychologist’ with an innate desire to understand causes of outcomes (Fritz, 1958). Attributions, therefore, help psychologists understand the cause of events, and as a professional, this will help in improving one’s performance. Motivation will direct behavior towards achieving particular goals. Example of a profession in which psychology is applied is teaching. Teachers have a responsibility to understand their students with regards to their response to different outcomes in school performance. Therefore attributory factors will have to be enhanced by encouraging students to culture intrinsic motivation. This will help students appreciate themselves more and help them deal with external factors they have no control over.
References
Baron, R. M., & Ganz, R. L. (1972). Effects of locus of control and type of feedback on the task performance of lower-class black children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 21 (1), 124.
Fritz, H. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. The Journal of Marketing , 56 , 322.
Weinberg, R. S., & Gould, D. (2007). Foundations of sport and exercise psychology
Weiner, B. (2005). Motivation from an attribution perspective and the social psychology of perceived competence. Handbook of competence and motivation , 73-84.
