Regarding self-efficacy & political empowerment .....

[H2O Man]

There are a number of threads on DU in the past couple days that have to do with concerns about people's "power versus helplessness." These threads range from those with very strong, positive messages that encourage people to be active participants in society, to those that take a weak, defeatist approach that suggest that no matter what DUers do, they will be victims of circumstance. As a result of some of these threads, a few people have questioned others' motives, or taken offense when some DUers disagree with them.

I thought it might be fun to take a few minutes, and do a brief, informal review of the idea of "power," specifically in terms of self-empowerment. We all know that our word "power" comes from the Latin root "posse," which means the ability to do something. Our discussion should thus include the word "efficacy," which simply means the degree which something (or someone) does what it (they) intend to do -- the power to produce the desired effect.

Individuals vary in how they view and experience power and efficacy. In general, this is best understood in terms of "locus of control." That is how people view both the cause and control of events in their lives. Some people believe in their ability to deal with the events in their life; they have an internal locus of control. Others believe that the events of the life are outside of their control; this is an external locus of control.

There tend to be five areas of "control" that have been identified by social scientists. Let's look at them:

{1} Cognitive: This is the most important. It's our ability to view situations in an objective way, to identify a goal, and to outline the steps we need to reach that goal. Clearly, if one has an internal locus of control, their cognitive abilities are going to make them see different options than those people with an external locus of control.

{2} Decisional: This is an interesting one. It's the ability to make decisions, and the willingness to take responsibility for the decisions we make. Again, we can see how different people experience life differently. There is a significant difference between those who take responsibility, and those who find security in blaming others.

{3} Informational: This is the ability to find valuable information in order to make the best decisions in one's life. One great thing about this country is that there is a huge, varied amount of information available. Even before the internet, a person could go to a public library and access books and articles on almost every topic. But, again, we find that one's view about who is responsible to get that information defines significant differences between people. It can be hard work to properly research an issue, while it is easy to blame someone else for not spoon-feeding it to us.

{4} Behavioral: This is our ability to take concrete action. This one certainly is impacted by one's sense of locus of control.

{5} Retrospective: This is the ability to learn from our experiences. It sounds simply, but it's not always so. I'm reminded of the "controversy" on some DU threads about Robert Kennedy Jr's article on the stolen election in 2004. There are DUers who have taken the position that his doing this could be harmful to our party. Think about that: how could it possibly be harmful? Only if you have an external locus of control.

Most people, of course, recognize that there are forces outside of one's control in life, making it impossible to exercise full control over all situations. We can't control nature, and we are not able to control other people. But we are responsible for our own actions, including how we react and respond to those events we cannot control. This is summed up best in the serenity prayer from St. Francis which is often associated to 12 Step Programs.

In 1966, Julian Rotter devised what we know as the I-E Scale, which measures a person's sense of locus of control by their response to a series of questions. By no small coincidence, those questions include the following -- which could be taken straight from DU threads:

-- The average citizen can have influence on government decisions.

-- This world is run by a few people in power, and there is not much that the little guy can do about it.

These questions help measure the sense of self-efficacy. Those with a positive sense of their ability to accomplish goals when they take a disciplined approach will experience far less psychological stress and physiological strain in everyday life. This does not include those who have "magical thinking," which is an irrational belief system that takes an unrealistic view to those 5 forms of power. And it is almost the opposite of those who suffer from learned helplessness, which is the condition of weakness and apathy that results in some people from repeated experiences with negative results.

In political organization and social movements, the leadership -- including on the group and individual level -- comes from the sense of an internal locus of control. That's where true power lies. And there is often a sense of tension between those who advocate power and those who express helplessness and hopelessness. In part, this is because the enemies of a movement will sometimes attempt to infiltrate, and plant seeds of doubt. Yet this can usually be distinguished, for those who may be the Johnny Appleseeds of doubt are often "high energy," attending lots of meetings, making numerous suggestions, and demonstrating an energy level that rarely, if ever, corresponds with those who are either temporarily overwhelmed, or who suffer from learned helplessness.

There are numerous studies by social scientists, and field experience from grass roots activists, that support the belief that organized people can and do "make a difference." There are examples such as what has happened in my lifetime in South Africa, that shows that people who have far more difficult circumstances than our citizens do, can effect change. That's power.