Locus of Control in Dynamic Settings: a Semiotic Extension of an Old Theory

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.