# locus of control (attribution)

Whether a self-model reads its outcomes as set by its own action or by conditions outside its reach, before any test of which is true.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [set](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-set.fix), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [outcome](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-outcome.result), [action](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-action.deed), [condition](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-condition.state), [outside](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-outside.spatial), [time](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-time.dimension), [test](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-test.assessment), [true](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-true.accurate)

**Through:** The self-model reads each outcome as set either from within its reach or from outside it; the habitual answer becomes a standing reading that decides, before any test, whether acting is worth trying.

**Novel properties:**
- a disposition of the reading, not of the reach
- one dial that can err in either direction
- attribution that precedes action

## Examples
- Julian Rotter introduced locus of control in a 1966 monograph and measured it with his Internal-External scale. *(psychology)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-locus-of-control.attribution*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-locus-of-control.attribution.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*