Choice or Chance

you can either stop trying or you can pick yourself up and keep going.”

Mental health professionals have used three different perspectives in their search for the cause, explanation, and definition of abnormality: the biological, the psychological, and the systemic.

Internals showed they were willing to invest more in their fitness behaviors than Externals by being healthier eaters and more enthusiastic exercisers.

they are responding to social cues. In the study, the cooperative instructions emphasized that each child's score was important to the final outcome, that the other person was depending on what the child did. Perhaps that was enough to motivate the Externals to improve their performance.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

comments from mothers of Internals came at the “right” time to reward their children's persistence. Their statements were never given as orders.

“Since reinforcement in academic environments usually occur at a low rate, students need to persist at academic tasks for relatively long periods of time with little reinforcement…. Internal control would give them some degree of independence in non-supportive classroom environments.”

Externality was related to lower stress before the actual divorce decision but greater stress after the decision was made. I would guess feeling less responsible heading toward divorce might be more comforting and less stressful than dealing with the reality of divorce and realizing the necessity of making a new start once the proceedings are over.

Externality is not cast in stone, and if people are able to become more Internal, they actually appear to gain a shot at a longer life. Now that is something to think about if you are considering lighting up your next cigarette, having a giant piece of cheesecake, and telling yourself, “Whatever will be, will be.”

LOC reflects how we have learned to perceive what happens to us.