07 July, 2008

Where is the Bahraini Control?

In psychology, External Locus of Control means that one blames his or her problems on external factors. For example; if one is to fail an exam, then the teacher is to blame, or the exam is hard, or the book was confusing. Never will they say that they should have studied harder. Life is not controlled by them. It is controlled by something or someone else. But not them.
External Locus of control is one of the signs of low self esteem. Where a person believes little in him or her self. A person with high self esteem has an Internal Locus of Control and rarely blames misfortune on external factors.
The reason why I am saying this to you all is that from my experience at work, going into different companies all over Bahrain, I can safely say that most Bahrainis have an external locus of control. I saw many Bahrainis, unemployed or stuck in low paying jobs. They complain that their boss doesn't appreciate them. They complain that companies don't like Bahrainis. That the government didn't "give" them a job. Not once have they looked into a mirror?
They show up to job interviews wearing T shirts and slippers. They either demand a job or beg for it. They complain that they don't get a chance to better them selves, expecting employers to pay for their education, but they never read a book or looked something up online.
Why don't you have a job? is it the government? Or evil business men? Why are you over weight? Is it god's will? Are you unlucky? Why did your business fail? Is it because of oil prices? Is it because new local laws?
It takes a strong person to stand up and say "I should have done things differently". Even if you are all alone, it takes guts to say it.
Can you spot the External Locus of Control around you? This is a cultural problem that plagues many people from school children to whole corporations.
Squint, look hard. Can you see it around you? Better still, can you see it in you?
Bahrain must change and look in the mirror.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are slightly confusing the 'locus of control' and the fundamental attribution error' concepts with each other. You're in fact speaking of the latter.

Only pointing it out, not showing off, honestly O:)

Redbelt said...

Good morining h.
Naw, I'm, pretty sure I only meant Locus of Control. I believe the Fundamental Attribution Error is not the case or at least not what I discussed.
In any case, I am no Psychology major so I could very well be wrong.
That was off topic, returning to topic, did you notice any of this in Bahrain?

SoulSearch said...

This is seriously an inspirational post. It rings true with every word you've written, that is the most dcisive reason why Bahrainis fail in their careers.
I hope we can change to the better.
Thanks for sharing

Anonymous said...

The ministry of education does most of their job interviews for teachers and other positions where I work, and do you know what I saw??

Now, like you said there were a lot of guys who came to the interviews wearing shirts and slippers and others wearing thoubs without ghutras but the one thing that caught my eye was one person coming to an interview with a baby in their arms!

WTF?? Are they trying to show that they desperately need the job to feed the baby or something?

Redbelt said...

It is as you said Yagoob. Now of course this could be lack of proper education on what a job interview is. But regardless; from my experience I can say that most of these people expect that job as their RIGHT. Meaning if they didn't get accepted they'll be shocked and say the world isn't fair and write letters to the local media.
Read the letters pages of any newspaper for a week. You can easily spot that.

Question is: Why does a good number of Bahraini's project their problems on external forces?

BuZain said...

Apart of the correct name for it, I agree with you that this is quite an obvious way for lots of Bahraini's to offload the feelings of failure of their own plans by blaming others.

I see it as a primitive subconscious method for self preservation especially if a person is not emotionally mature to handle the pressures of self-assessment. The real problem is when it becomes a way of living.

Have you thought of ways to help others overcome it?

Redbelt said...

Well, as in individual nothing much aside of blogging about it and raising awareness.
But It is good that my daily job does involve engaging a good number of the Bahraini public and suggesting different training programmes that may help with this notion.