Practice question · Multiple choice
Two people both expect to succeed about 40% of the time, and both win twice in a row. One concludes she is getting good at this; the other concludes she has been lucky. Whose expectations change, and what does that show about locus of control?
Hints
- The outcomes were identical. So whatever differs is in how they were explained.
- Ask which explanation makes the win say something about the person.
Show the answer
D. The first person's, since ability credits the outcome to capability.
Why
Identical outcomes do different work depending on where they are attributed: 'I am getting good at this' makes the win diagnostic and updates the belief, where 'I got lucky' explains it without implicating the person. It is how locus of control becomes self-maintaining, and why an internal locus is not unconditionally better, since it means owning failures that were never controllable.
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