Editing Locus of control (section)

=={{anchor|Related area: attributional style}}Attributional style==
{{Main|Explanatory style}}
Attributional style (or explanatory style) is a concept introduced by [[Lyn Yvonne Abramson]], [[Martin Seligman]] and [[John D. Teasdale]].{{sfn|Abramson|Seligman|Teasdale|1978}} This concept advances a stage further than Weiner, stating that in addition to the concepts of internality-externality and stability a dimension of globality-specificity is also needed. Abramson et al. believed that how people explained successes and failures in their lives related to whether they attributed these to internal or external factors, short-term or long-term factors, and factors that affected all situations.

The topic of [[attribution theory]] (introduced to psychology by [[Fritz Heider]]) has had an influence on locus of control theory, but there are important historical differences between the two models. Attribution theorists have been predominantly [[Social psychology|social psychologists]], concerned with the general processes characterizing how and why people make the attributions they do, whereas locus of control theorists have been concerned with individual differences.

Significant to the history of both approaches are the contributions made by [[Bernard Weiner]] in the 1970s. Before this time, attribution theorists and locus of control theorists had been largely concerned with divisions into external and internal loci of causality. Weiner added the dimension of stability-instability (and later controllability), indicating how a cause could be perceived as having been internal to a person yet still beyond the person's control. The stability dimension added to the understanding of why people succeed or fail after such outcomes.