I’d think that running away would be the opposite of these. I ended up with an MC Issue of Commitment and I’m not sure how to compare these issues and pick one as being better than the other.
Here’s part of the answer…
The former (com) wears blinders, moving forward never wavering. The latter (resp) assesses from self interest, going forward or refusing involvement. At least, that was my take from reading the dictionary definitions.
Here’s the rest of that quote:
The first example shows the dynamic pairs in opposition; the second in collaboration (positive).
I checked with the dictionary and I guess they can oppose or “imply synthesis,” but I thought the point and counterpoints were supposed to be contrasted.
I’m still in the process of watching this series: http://storymind.com/page455.htm
There’s a lot of helpful info in there. Takes a while to digest everything.
The two terms are opposite in where they place the locus of control – internally or externally.
Commitment places control outside of self. “But what about everyone else’ feelings?” Responsibility places it almost exclusively inside self. “I’m the only one who can solve this.” Which is more useful varies from one situation to another.
Actually, jamjam, Dramatica says the Issue and Counterpoint should always be contrasted.
However, the contrast does not have to be “day and night.” It can just be “afternoon and twilight” or “predawn and dawn.”
Still, a Grand Argument Story will have one of these two, at least in the addressed storyform, being shown as a more-advantageous way to look at the Story Problem than the other one is (even if it’s just by a few increments)…
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Oh. I forgot I already asked this a while ago. 
The two terms are opposite in where they place the locus of control – internally or externally.
That makes more sense.
Thanks for clarifying! I’ve removed my post to avoid misleading others. I guess in any form of writing, one will be implied to be better than the other no matter what. It’s inevitable, now that I think about it.
(I was thrown off by the ‘neutral’ default in the software)
Yeah, that “neutral” default can be misleading. The software doesn’t object if you leave that slider at “neutral.” Yet all the surrounding theory explanations strongly suggest you should not leave the choice between Issue and Counterpoint in “neutral” (at least in your own thinking and Story resolution).
Not to monkey-wrench the discussion, but I interpreted it the other way around, commitment being the internal driving force and responsibility being the externalized variation that is fully involved with others, either failing them or deciding what it is they actually need.
From DSE:
“A commitment forms the essence of the steadfast character. When a character makes a commitment, it is a decision not to quit regardless of the obstacles that may come. This allows the character to accept much higher costs on the way to a goal than he would if he reevaluated every time something went wrong…”
“Responsibility is a determination of who will have control and also be held accountable should control not be successfully exercised. Responsibility can be taken, given, assumed, and relinquished. In practice, the desire for power or control often leads individuals to leverage a position as decision maker to the exclusion of others…”
This makes it sound like commitment is the internal one.
I could also make a case for the two being different as a function of willingness: commitment is the sort of thing that would have someone jumping in head-first, while responsibility may surround something you have to pick up while holding your nose—you may not want to, but you have to. But that can get back to the externality, too: With commitment, the driving force is inside you. With responsibility, the driving force is how disappointed or angry people will be if you don’t do that thing.
Just for my two cents, I understood Commitment as “doing it because that’s just what you do,” whereas Responsibility was “doing it because it’s the right thing to do.” So if you have an Issue of Commitment, you feel locked into a bad choice and feel like you need to switch to make the right one. Whereas, if you have an Issue of Responsibility, you keep trying to take over other people’s work on shaky grounds of “doing it right” when everything would work out best if you just left well enough alone and Committed to the current plan of action. (Alternatively, you refuse to do something because all you see is that you bear no Responsibility to it. But you’re Committed to getting it done, so you have to do it.)
EDIT: Oh, hey, I just had a realization! Commitment and Responsibility are on the Ability-Desire axis, which means their relationship is similar to other things on that same axis. Like Situation and Circumstance, or Confidence and Worry. That actually clears it up a lot for me.
Zoom out far enough and both Responsibility and Commitment look like internal processes (falling under the domain of Psychology). Moving further down Dramatica shrinks the the spectrum – the dynamic pairs are opposites in smaller and less obvious ways.
At the thematic level, many of the dynamic pairs are the same concept viewed through different lenses, such as Internal vs. External, or Action vs. Decision (dichotomies one finds at every level of Dramatica). Using these dichotomies helps me understand the differences between similar sounding concepts that are paired together.
Responsibility and Commitment are not an “Internal A vs External B,” where A and B are whatever. They are an “*Internal X vs External X,” where X is the common element that nonetheless appears different when viewed through the dichotomy. In this case, it is locus of control.
While they’re both internal, mental processes, Commitment places control into an external arbiter, real or imagined. It is willingly placed, but regardless it involves conceding psychological power.This can be advantageous – a commitment once made no longer drains psychological energy with reconsiderations or with revisiting dilemmas.
Responsibility does the opposite – it attempts to concentrate mental control to the exclusion of other voices… It internalizes authority. So I still think that you can view the two along a internal vs. external spectrum – it’s just a smaller scale within the larger sphere of internal processes (domain of Psychology).
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