Internal VS External Locus of Control

If you have not started listening to podcasts, I highly recommend it.  This morning I decided to listen in on a podcast about how to become more productive and one of the eight common themes among efficient workers is their motivation levels.  

When it comes to motivation there are two ends of the spectrum where we feel we receive our sense of control in our lives - internal locus of control and external locus of control.  

Internal

Internal locus of control suggests that we control our fate and the outcome of our lives is a direct result of our input of effort to make it happen.

External

External locus of control suggests the opposite in which we lack control of our fate and when we receive something positive in our lives, we give credit to an external source such as luck. 

The podcast mentioned an experiment in which teachers complimented students' hard work on a test.

When teachers tell children that they did well on an exam and that they were smart, the compliments tend to trigger the child's external locus of control, as in learners do not have control over how smart they are and it is a fact of what they were born with.  

When teachers tell children that they performed well on a test and must have worked really hard, it triggers an internal locus of control because the child chooses how hard to work. 

This implies that certain kinds of praise are more powerful and lead to higher productivity.  If teachers can train students to believe that they are in control of their lives and get students addicted to the pleasure of being in control, perhaps this can blur the barrier between nature vs. nurture and start believing that their performances at school are more in their hands than they realize.