Fate

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorUniversity, Bachelor's February 2008

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Fate Fate, destiny, predestination; all of these things have essentially the same meaning. They are the idea that an event or series of events is planned out by a power higher than that of oneself. One of the most influential psychologists in the area or behaviorism is Julian Rotter.

Rotter proposed the theory that there were two places people interpreted the consequences of their behavior to come from: external and internal loci of control. The external locus is the belief that things happen purely as a result of fate or destiny. Whereas the internal locus is when people believe that they are responsible for their own actions. The way that Rotter explained this is through the social learning theory.

Behaviors are learned because they are followed by reinforcement, when the reinforcement is taken away the behavior will slowly fade. People develop internal and external interpretation that will influence future behavior with every behavior learned.

The method that Rotter used linked two statements, one internal and one external, and told the people who were being tested to choose one based on what their reactions would be to the situation presented. This test was named the "I.E. scale." The next thing that Rotter had to do was to show that the results could predict peoples behaviors in certain situations.

This study is yet another way of trying to explain the human mind. Does fate really exist? Can we control our own future, or is it controlled by some outside force? Rotter's study has been directly linked to thousands of studies since it's beginning in 1966. The influence on studies of depression, religion, posttraumatic stress, child birth methods, and academic performance is great.

This was a controversial thing for me to write about because I have always been a believer in fate.