Social Intelligence, Explanatory Styles, and Locus of Control

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Social Intelligence, Explanatory Styles, and Locus of Control

Psychology of Personality · Chapter 9: Cognitive Theories of PersonalitySection 9.3 · lesson 55 of 838 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

Three cognitive constructs that decide what a setback means, and therefore what happens next.

  • Define social intelligence and say why it is context-dependent
  • Name the three dimensions of explanatory style
  • Distinguish internal from external locus of control
  • Explain how these beliefs shape motivation and wellbeing

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Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,119 words). Read along, or search it.

Cognitive Theories of Personality

Explanation, Control, and Social Skill

Two students fail the same exam, by the same margin, on the same day. One goes home and rewrites their study plan. The other stops trying altogether. The event was identical. The response was not. Cognitive personality theory says the difference lies in the explanation each one attached to it. This section covers three constructs that capture that difference. Social intelligence, explanatory style, and locus of control. And it is careful about what kind of thing each of them actually is.

The Problem

The Event Does Not Determine the Response

Hold that pair of students in mind, because the whole section works from them. What differs between them is not the event. It is the explanation attached to the event. And cognitive personality theory treats that explanation as a real feature of the person. Stable enough to measure. Consistent enough to predict what they will do next. That is a substantial claim, and it distinguishes this approach from trait scoring. It says the interesting individual difference is not how much of something you have. It is how you interpret what happens to you.

Not a Trait

Social Intelligence Is a Repertoire

Start with social intelligence, because its definition sets the tone for the rest. It is the store of knowledge, skills and strategies a person uses to navigate social situations. That includes the ability to read others. The ability to set social goals. And the ability to select effective behavior for the situation in front of them. Now the important qualification. Social intelligence is treated as a flexible repertoire, not a single fixed trait. Which is why it differs across individuals and across situations. And it explains something familiar. Someone can be socially adept in one context and visibly not in another. That is not inconsistency. On this account, it is what a repertoire looks like.

Three Dimensions

How People Explain What Happened

Explanatory style is the characteristic way a person explains the causes of events. Especially good and bad outcomes. Theorists break it into three dimensions, and all three are needed. Internal versus external. Is the cause me, or the situation? Stable versus unstable. Will it last? Global versus specific. Does it affect everything, or just this? The three dimensions are independent of one another. Which means a person can take the blame for a failure. And still treat it as temporary, and confined to one area. That particular combination is the whole difference between our two students.

Two Patterns

Pessimistic and Optimistic Styles

Two patterns get named, and they sit at opposite corners of the three dimensions. A pessimistic style explains bad events as internal, stable, and global. It is me. It will not change. And it affects everything. That style is linked to helplessness and low mood. An optimistic style does the reverse on all three. It explains bad events as external, unstable, and specific. Now here is the part people usually get wrong. The dangerous dimension is not the first one. Taking responsibility for a failure is not the problem. Stable and global are the two that do the damage. Because between them they remove any possibility of the situation being different.

Combined

Two Dimensions, Four Outlooks

Explanatory style and locus of control are separate dimensions. And they combine to shape a person's overall outlook. Put explanatory style along one axis, and locus of control along the other. Internal and optimistic sits in one corner. That combination supports initiative, persistence, and wellbeing. Internal and pessimistic sits in another. Here the person accepts causal responsibility, and reads the cause as permanent. External and optimistic occupies a third corner. And external with pessimistic sits opposite the first. That last region is where perceived uncontrollability and low mood meet. Treat this as a map of combinations, not a set of boxes to sort people into.

The Second Axis

Locus of Control

Locus of control was introduced by Julian Rotter. It concerns where a person believes the causes of outcomes lie. Those with an internal locus believe outcomes follow mainly from their own efforts and choices. Those with an external locus attribute outcomes to luck, fate, or powerful others. Rotter called this a generalized expectancy. Meaning a broad belief carried across many situations, rather than a judgement about one. And that expectancy shapes motivation directly. Internals tend to take initiative, and to persist. Externals may feel less able to influence what happens to them. Notice the hedge in that last sentence. May feel less able. It is a tendency, not a rule.

The Limit

It Is a Continuum, Not a Category

That hedge deserves a slide of its own, because it is easy to lose. Locus of control is best understood as a continuum. And as somewhat context-dependent, rather than an all-or-nothing trait. Sorting people into internals and externals is a convenience of description. It is not a finding that there are two kinds of person. The same caution applies to social intelligence. Which the source explicitly says differs across situations as well as across individuals. And these constructs do not simply stack on top of each other. Locus of control interacts with explanatory style and social intelligence. Together they form a broader cognitive-social profile, rather than three separate scores.

The Failure Mode

Learned Helplessness

There is a specific failure mode at the end of this line of research. Learned helplessness. The passivity that follows a perceived lack of control. Specifically, passivity after uncontrollable events. The word learned is the important one in that phrase. It is not a temperament somebody was born with. It is an expectancy, acquired from a history in which action did not change the outcome. Which is exactly why it appears where the two constructs meet. A pessimistic explanation of events. Combined with a belief that outside forces decide them. Neither alone is sufficient. Together they remove the reason to act.

Reference

Five Constructs, Five Questions

It helps to see all five constructs against the question each one answers. Social intelligence asks how well I navigate social life. At the high end, someone reads others and adapts their strategy. Explanatory style asks how I explain outcomes, producing an optimistic or pessimistic pattern. An internal locus asks whether my actions cause outcomes, and tends toward initiative and persistence. An external locus asks whether outside forces decide, and tends toward reliance on luck or others. And learned helplessness asks whether anything can be changed at all. Its signature is passivity after uncontrollable events.

Consolidate

What This Buys You in Practice

Return to the two students, and read them through the three dimensions. One concludes, I under-prepared this time, and I can fix that. The other concludes, I am just not smart enough. Look carefully. Both of those explanations are internal. So the difference between them is not about taking responsibility. The first explanation is unstable and specific. This time, and this thing. The second is stable and global. Not smart enough, permanently, at everything. Same event. Very different motivation afterwards. Which makes the intervention precise rather than general. Help people reframe bad events as specific and changeable. Rather than as global and permanent.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Social Intelligence, Explanatory Styles, and Locus of Control

What is social intelligence in personality psychology?
Social intelligence is the store of knowledge, skills, and strategies a person uses to navigate social situations. It includes reading others, setting social goals, and choosing effective behavior for the situation at hand. It is treated as a flexible repertoire rather than one fixed trait, which is why someone can be socially skilled in one context and visibly awkward in another without being inconsistent.
What is explanatory style?
Explanatory style is a person's characteristic way of explaining the causes of events, especially good and bad outcomes. It has three independent dimensions: internal versus external, stable versus unstable, and global versus specific. A pessimistic style explains bad events as internal, stable, and global and is linked to helplessness and low mood. Taking personal responsibility is not the main problem; stable and global explanations do the most damage.
What is locus of control?
Locus of control, introduced by Julian Rotter, is a person's belief about where the causes of outcomes lie. People with an internal locus believe outcomes follow mainly from their own effort and choices, while those with an external locus credit luck, fate, or powerful others. Rotter called it a generalized expectancy. It is best seen as a continuum that shifts somewhat with context, not as two types of people.
What is learned helplessness?
Learned helplessness is the passivity that follows uncontrollable events, when a person comes to expect that action will not change outcomes. It is an acquired expectancy, not an inborn temperament, and the concept grew out of research by Martin Seligman and Steven Maier in the late 1960s. It tends to appear where a pessimistic explanatory style meets an external locus of control, because together they remove the reason to act.

About the Psychology of Personality course

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Psychology of Personality (Psychology 300) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
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