Julian Rotter (1966) proposed locus of control (LOC) as a concept concerned with internal control versus external control. Some people have an internal LOC (internals) - they believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves. For example, if you do well in an exam it is because you worked hard, if you don't do well it is because you didn't work hard.
Some people have an external LOC (externals) - they tend to believe the things that happen are outside their control. So if they did well in an exam it was because they used an excellent textbook (ours, obviously). If they failed they might blame it on the textbook (not ours) or they had bad luck because the questions were hard.
