Everything in your control is not an accurate world view |#11
By: Harsha Pallapotu
Tags: Philiosophy, Questions, Research, Authors, Psychology

Podcast name: No stupid questions

Host: Angela Duckworth and Steven Dubner

Guest: N/A

Episode: How much of your life do you actually control

When it comes to behavioural psychology, there are so many interesting things one can learn by looking into past research carried out by academics and philosophers. Sometimes, the answers to questions on the nuanced behaviour of a person can tell a lot behind the mental makeup of our brains, how it perceives a situation and adapts based on past experiences or stimuli. I am by no means an expert but this topic fascinates me and the episode for this week’s revisit is from a podcast that has become one of my weekly listens. The hosts Angela Duckworth and Steven Dubner are well-renowned authors among their vast array of accomplishments and with this podcast, they aim to ask each other questions that provoke an interesting thought process backed by research on some of the mundane observations in daily life.

This particular episode is about trying to answer the question of how much control do we have in our lives. It seemed apt for last month in what feels like a never-ending year of unpredictability. Stephen starts the conversation off by introducing an interesting concept: the locus of control. There are two types of people; ones who have an internal locus of control and others who have an external locus of control. This means that people who have an internal locus of control believe that they control the outcome of what happens in their lives through the actions they take. These people tend to be mentally healthy and have a good sense of well being whereas people who have an external locus of control believe that external factors around them control the outcomes in their life.

Angela concurs with research and personal experience that having an internal locus of control is better and is more positive to have than an external locus of control. However, is it healthy for people to think that they control every aspect of their life? Surprisingly, Angela talks about how up until mid 20th century, psychologists and scientists thought that human behaviour is shaped through external stimuli just like lab rats being baited through rewards and punishments but it was only after the mid 20th century that people started to realize there might be more to it. Things like hopes, dreams, insecurities etc. often shape our thinking and our interpretation of reality. That being said, there is some credibility to the research as humans do respond to incentives and fear consequences but it is just not the full story as researchers previously assumed.

Having a mental table of things we can control and things we cannot control is a helpful way to think through the obstacles and nudge our locus of control from an external to internal. It also reveals some of our underlying biases and Angela gives a great example of a middle school kid who if given the opportunity would blame external elements instead of looking inwards to see what he/she can control. The duo also argues that in a controlled experiment, if students are taught to have a growth mindset to nourish their sense of internal locus of control and are asked to help others who are in an inferior condition than they are, these students may think that if that person worked hard on their own, they might be able to alleviate themselves from their current situation. Therefore, it becomes really important how we choose to raise and teach kids from a young age.

The conversation then shifts to discuss procrastination- a phenomenon I am very much familiar with and I am sure you are too, so why do we do it? And is there a solution for it? Stephen makes a really interesting point that one procrastinates less as they get older because experience plays a key role in helping us remember the times we profited from not procrastinating and also the times we suffered from procrastinating. As we grow older, more deadlines and more stakeholders get added to the equation thereby making it painful to procrastinate. Angela also offers her advice on breaking down tasks to bite-sized chunks and just getting started with the task to avoid falling into the vicious cycle of procrastination. Focusing our minds on the intention helps us to avoid seeing the enormity of the task at hand.