Internal Locus of Control (IC) VS Internal Locus of Responsibility (IR)

What challenges might clinicians face in conducting therapy with minority groups?

 

Individuals high in internal personal control (IC) believe that they are masters of their fate and that their actions do affect the outcomes. Likewise, people high in internal locus of responsibility (IR) attribute their current status and life conditions to their own unique attributes; success is due to one's own efforts, and lack of success is attributed to one's shortcomings or inadequacies. Perhaps the greatest exemplification of the IC-IR philosophy is U.S. society.

 

American culture can be described as the epitome of the individual-centered approach that emphasizes uniqueness, independence, and self-reliance. A high value is placed on personal resources for solving all problems; self-reliance; pragmatism; individualism; status achievement through one's own effort; and power or control over others, things, animals, and forces of nature.

 

Democratic ideals such as “equal access to opportunity,” “liberty and justice for all,” “God helps those who help themselves,” and “fulfillment of personal destiny” all reflect this worldview. The individual is held accountable for all that transpires. Most members of the White upper and middle class would fall within this quadrant».

 

The specific quadrant that a clinician would fall into, as described above (IC) vs (IR), is usually adopted by people who belong to the western societies. So, it is very vital to get to know that this kind of worldview for people who don’t belong to the western societies, it would seem to be very unfamiliar. For example, the Arab – Americans, who are mostly religious and as a result they have an external locus of control, they would find a difficulty in accepting that ‘success is due to one’s own efforts, or that all should have equal access to opportunity’, since their societies are very patriarchic and as we know women are not equal to men at all.

 

In addition, a person who believes in external locus of control, feels that there is little one can do in the face of severe external obstacles as prejudice and discrimination, that’s why the majority of the people of color, in order to survive in the dominant white society, they “play the cool” in order to cover their true feelings and thoughts. Consequently, the therapist should be very careful so as not to impose his/her own values onto the client and on the other hand he/she should not apply white solutions to people of color.   

 

 

References

Marks, L.I. (1998). Deconstructing locus of control: Implications for practitioners. Journal of Counseling & Development, 76 (3), 251-260.

Sue, B.W. & Sue, D. (2016). Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Sue, D. W. (1978). Eliminating cultural oppression in counseling: Toward a general theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 25(5), 419–428.

 

 

Nickolas Kouravanas & Papadopoulou Eleni, Psychologist, MSc.