[music playing]
Brad: A locus of control is the belief in what affects our lives and our situations. Internal locus of control is the belief that your life is controlled by forces internally, so the decisions that you make. External locus of control is the opposite. It's the belief that your life is controlled by forces outside of your control.
Smiljana: I think mine is more internal, just because, I don't know, I think a lot. I do a lot of thinking, sometimes overthinking. And I tend to analyze things way too much. And whenever I'm having a bad day, or, you know, I have a bad day at work, I'm like, what have I done wrong?
Brad: I think as a general rule, mine is an internal locus of control. I know that there are things that are outside of my control, but whatever I can do to direct a situation in whatever way I can. For example, wearing a seat belt when you drive a car-- you can't control all the time if you're going to get into a wreck. But you can determine that little bit of extra safety, and I'll do what I can to control the situation.
Fritz: Internal or external-- I believe with me it's kind of a balance, kind of 50-50. There's certain aspects that I'll blame outside factors for something that happened, whereas other factors, I believe that it was my fault that it happened. So for example, if I was late to class, I might blame the traffic. And then with an internal locus of control, I would feel like if I didn't do well on a test, it's because I didn't study hard enough.
Brad: I have a friend that-- I used to work in the fitness industry-- and they were always asking me why I spent so much time in the gym and trying to eat clean and things like that. And they actually smoked cigarettes and that was the part that we were talking about.
Their idea was that no matter how much they smoked, if they're going to get cancer, they're going to get cancer, whether they smoke cigarettes or not. And it was just kind of a blatant external locus of control thing, like if it's going to happen, it will happen.