Locus of control, learned helplessness, and the tyranny of choice | Khan Academy

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[@sohailien]

Too many choices leads to taking longer because of wanting to make the "right" choice. This stops the decision making process and creates a sensation of losing control, which is why many feel a decreased sense of well-being​ in these situations. Ultimately a person's sense of well being is based on having an internal locus of control.

[@rutee4614]

Sohail Desai boom. I was gonna say. you always have a choice no matter what the situation, its internal. you pretty much summed that up. great job

[@spacecraftcarrier4135]

This is what Hick's Law is about.

[@mommysews1]

@@rutee4614 This is idealized but incorrect. One does not always have a choice, particularly when dealing with trauma - in the case of children in abusive situations it isn't as simple as "choosing", this also holds in those who are dying of a terminal illness, or those in war-torn countries. Have a read on the concept of "learned helplessness". When one has no external control over the situation they learn to stop trying to escape the problem/pain/situation. Unless of course, you want to consider that acceptance of a traumatic situation is having a choice...

[@christian6353]

It's not just actual control over your environment but perceived control.

[@sebastian8538]

Underrated comment. I totally agree, however, this perceived bubble of control might eventually pop, as it is only created by negligence of the real situation, meaning in certain circumstance no control. Once one realizes that any drive disappears imo, and then there is need for other internal driving forces than just the wrongly perceived bubble of control.

[@stacystacy754]

it's interesting that the external locus of control corresponds with higher depression, even though those with depression tend to blame misfortunes on internal factors such as no one liking them if their friend didn't text back vs if that friend was just busy. This was on a depression video you guys made

[@dickurkel6910]

But that's still an external locus of control. If your friend doesn't text back it's not something you could have changed.

[@mercury6284]

@@dickurkel6910 Yeah but they have a tendency to blame their friends decision to not text them back as a reflection of their own failures (Them not liking their personality or considered them a burden) rather than take into account the external factors they are more inclined to be critical of themselves.

[@benskurbe]

As a musician (specifically electric guitar player) I can attest to the fact that too many options is inhibiting. There’s so many products as a modern musician that are all clones or copies of something else it’s hard to tell what to buy.

[@richardbautista709]

this is what happen to Theon Greyjoy

[@erinhobbs5567]

iliketowin win good reference

[@roncallahan40]

Is nobody here going to mention the constant shocking of these poor dogs?

[@mathu991]

Ron Callahan why stop at dogs? What about all of the animals being tortured by factory farming (billions per year)

[@blatantslander]

@@mathu991 Parenting deals temporary torture to their children by spanking their arms but I don't see most people complaining. I think people like these are just hypocrities thinking everything should be joyful in life, but what really should happen is that they should experience all things even sad and painful moments as to adapt and overcome. Because once they grow up, whether they are dog or child, they will die out there and suffer if they do not follow the rules.

[@SovendeMay]

@@blatantslander It seems that some people opt to go against the grain and stand up against injustice, and some come to submit to the status quo and try to meekly accept things as they are, even if they don't like what is happening. I'd hazard that the latter approach is a survival technique, possibly learned at a young age. There are benefits to both approaches, and sometimes staying safe or staying connected to one's community or family is more important to that individual than challenging wrongdoing, if that act of speaking out would jeopardise the individual's basic safety or other survival needs.

[@blatantslander]

@@SovendeMay It's controlled reward and torture, I find nothing wrong as long as the life is not at stake

[@eve_______]

@@blatantslander Because of unintelligent people like you who do not see distinction in evil, these matters are not treated as seriously as they might have been. Evil has many layers, and unlike what Geralt says, necessary evil does exist.

[@Utkarshkharb]

Very well explained. Important lessons in general. I was experiencing a tyranny of choice trying to decide what to do after graduating because of multiple interests and capabilities.

[@ianjaypondevida7489]

The Tyranny of Choice reminds me of my early days of Trading where I analyzed too many indicators which led me to miss out on many opportunities in the market.

[@sariahsue]

Sometimes the test really is unfair, though. Funny story that happened to my best friend in high school: She had a very tough biology teacher. He graded tough, gave lots of homework and had grueling tests. My friend was very smart and hardworking (very strong internal locus of control), but there was one test that she didn't do well on, and neither did anyone else in the class. All the students claimed it had been too difficult and the teacher should scale the test to make it fair. The kids somehow convinced him that the best way to prove that the test had been unfair was to have him take the test himself. Which he did. He got a B. He set the test, had been a bio teacher for decades, taught it every day, and he still got only a B. So he scaled it two points. Haha. My friend was not very happy. (To this day, I'm not sure how he was able to grade them correctly if he didn't even know all the answers himself.)

[@DavidWCooke]

What a horrible thing to do to dogs

[@digitalriggs2879]

David W. Cooke don’t be simple. Key word “imagine” seems like you’re intellectually incapable of learning what’s being said here, and just feeding the call our culture. Propagating ignorance and division.

[@HarvardRadRes]

tyranny of choices is not the result of too many choices, but people's inability to analyze the information and unsure if making the right decision. So the problem is still too little control; in this case, their intelligence to completely analyze.

[@noviting6976]

I'm quite confused with this locus of control thing. Someone said to me that I seem to have an external locus of control, that I should try to think more confidently and be more optimistic that I have control over my life. Well, I have my own opinion here. I think there's one very important thing that is needed to be stressed here. From the dog experiment ( 1:58 ), what do you think that experiment is telling us? It's true that dogs from Group 1 showed stronger internal locus of control than the dogs from Group 2. But you have to be aware that even the narrator herself said that "The dogs were conditioned ..." ( 2:04 & 2:19 ). So, the dogs were "programmed" by the treatments and what they had experienced before, hence they were resulted in such mindset. Can you just tell the dogs from Group 2 to have stronger mindset while letting them experience those horrible things? So, my conclusion is we don't even have the control to shape how our locus of control would be, how strong or weak our mindset is, if you know what I mean. I must stress that I don't have a bit of negative intention or against anybody. It's just my personal opinion. I wish everyone can have strong mindset, but unfortunately everyone is different. If you think you have weak mindset now, don't be too sad. You're not alone, and remember that life is dynamic. We're humans, of course we are not always in our best conditions. We can feel weak sometimes, and we can strengthen our minds and be better. We're not strong/weak forever..

[@fantasticphil3863]

I know it's possible to shift your own locus of control, the fact that outside forces might or do that as well should have nothing to do with that! Any changes or influences that allow you to adopt well to a wider set of new circumstances, are changes for the better.

[@iainhanley5461]

Point of break off with you and all connected persons.

[@yarminreyes3563]

Poor doggies 🥺

[@topazislost]

ah the curse of being "gifted" in elementary school

[@blakevalentine7990]

Poor Clifford...

[@subashm2653]

I okay with understanding locus of control with theoretical evidence stop shocking the dogs jesus! Who tf chose dogs for this ?

[@michalchik]

Good video. Try to say actually less.

[@user-rr2vv2wq7o]

That voice... It so high it hurts my ears. Like Bernadette's. So unapropriate and unmatched with the content of the video