Chapter 8 - 2

02 Psychology

Personal Control Beliefs

Whether or not people are conscious of it, they hold very specific beliefs about their perceived control, or lack thereof, over situations that occur in their lives.

In reaction to a particular situation, people attempt to explain its outcome in terms of a cause-and-effect relationship.

Experts in the field of psychology believe that people can be divided into two clear categories in regard to their personal control beliefs.

There are those with a pessimistic explanatory style and those who practice a more optimistic explanatory style.

Personal control beliefs are the powers an individual feels he or she has over the outcomes of circumstances in his or her life.

A) They develop over time as an individual experiences disappointment and failure and learns different methods for coping with them.

B) A person’s explanatory style is an unchanging cognitive characteristic of his or her personality.

It reflects the way he or she thinks about the bad events in his or her life.

C) Negative incidents happen to everyone, but individuals differ in the ways they view the causes behind such events.

D) Individuals who tend to take a fatalistic view of unmet expectations are said to have a pessimistic explanatory style.

A) These people look internally at perceived failures, shortcomings, or what they consider to be inherent character flaws in themselves when a situation turns out negatively.

B) Such people do not consider that outside factors could have contributed to the loss.

Instead, they blame themselves and feel their shortcomings are too big to overcome.

C) People who have this style tend to feel helpless and give up when they encounter setbacks. They feel they have no control over circumstances in their lives and therefore will likely fail.

D) People who espouse the pessimistic style usually adopt negative coping mechanisms. These serve to decrease overall motivation and prompt more negative emotions.

On the other hand, those with an optimistic explanatory style generally ascribe external factors to a negative result.

A) For example, a person with an optimistic style might say, “I lost the tennis match because my coach wanted me to use the wrong type of serve”.

B) Individuals with this style see negative events as things that can be changed and controlled. The tennis player in this example might simply try a different type of serve next time, rather than feel she is a poor player.

C) Such people believe negative occurrences are isolated and the result of outside factors. Optimistic people are found to have more positive coping strategies. Therefore, they seem to be more successful and have higher self-esteem.

D) While an overly optimistic view could lead to an unhealthy and narcissistic opinion of oneself, most people consider the optimistic style-to be beneficial.

The key is a balance between being negatively affected by poor outcomes and realizing that while one may be somewhat responsible for a negative result, one also possesses the ability to make changes that can control future outcomes.