The quality you should most wish for in your children
The benefits of having an internal locus of control.
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The concept of a locus of control was developed in the 1960s by a psychologist named Julian Rotter. It is closely linked to the idea of agency.
PHOTO: ST FILE
The Economist
If you could bestow any quality on your children, which one would you pick? Great intelligence? Empathy for humanity? Much greater respect for their parents? The ability to pass a fridge without opening it?
Deborah Cobb-Clark, an economist at The University of Sydney, has a different answer: an internal locus of control. The concept of a locus of control was developed in the 1960s by a psychologist with the tremendous name of Julian Rotter.
