Something happens.
The monkey has to explain it.
Was it luck? Other people? Circumstances? Fate? The algorithm? Mercury being retrograde?
Or does the monkey believe that its own actions can meaningfully change what happens next?
“World did this to monkey.”
The monkey tends to see important outcomes as being controlled primarily by luck, circumstances, powerful other monkeys, or forces outside itself.
“Monkey can do something about this.”
The monkey perceives a meaningful relationship between its own actions and important outcomes.
This is where self-efficacy enters the story.
“My actions can influence what happens.”
“I believe I can actually perform the action.”
The monkey does not control everything.
Other monkeys exist. Circumstances exist. Randomness exists. Structural constraints exist. Luck exists.
The point isn't:
“I control the universe.”
It's the smaller — and much more useful — question:
“What part of this is mine?”
You don't need to feel powerful before you act. Sometimes the feeling arrives after the evidence does.
A fragrance for the monkey who reaches for the steering wheel.
Not because the monkey controls everything.
Because the monkey has discovered something:
its actions matter.
The psychological construct of locus of control was introduced by psychologist Julian B. Rotter.
Rotter's foundational 1966 paper, Generalized Expectancies for Internal Versus External Control of Reinforcement , developed the internal–external control framework and the measure that became known as Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale.
This page is an interpretation of that psychological framework through the language of fragrance, agency and the monkey.
Read Rotter's 1966 paper →Locus of Control™ is one territory within the wider world of The Venusian Arts.
Enter the House of Venus →— Sahil Tayal