What do you think of when you hear the term, 'internal locus?' And no, that doesn't mean that I just ate a chocolate covered grasshopper! Locus is the correct term -- in Latin it means 'place.' In psychology, it is used in conjunction with having an internal or external locus of control. Every time I say it, I confess that I do tend to visualize a grasshopper -- and frankly, I'd rather have one on the outside of me! However, after living through the 1980's plagues of grasshoppers in Saskatchewan, I did NOT do well with the grasshoppers hitting the side view mirror on the car, propel through the open window and come zinging down the front of my shirt at 80 kilometres an hour! Nor did I do well with making my way through them (roughly 80 grasshoppers per sidewalk block) whilst wearing a dress and nylons on the way to work! (And did you know that nylons serve as a perfect net for catching hold of grasshopper feet?!?!?) Okay...now I'm getting shivers! Post-Traumatic Grasshopper Disorder kicking in!
An internal locus of control looks different on a directional basis. Here the arrows go outward from the centre/the dot. The person defines from the inside out what kind of person they want to be/choose to be. They decide what kind of things they value, how they perform as an employee/student/professional, what kind of friend they are, how they want to interact with their parents or spouse, what they determine to be a priority, what energizes them, etc. The internal locus has an anchoring point. It assumes personal responsibility, which is something easily avoided through blaming in the external locus. The internal locus of control enforces personal choice and responsibility, which ultimately leads to wholeness.
