Introduction
Few topics have persisted in holding our attention like that of human freedom. Questions pertaining to free will have pervaded philosophical and theological writings and imbued works of popular culture at least since the time of Plato. Psychological agency, “the freedom of individual human beings to make choices and to act on these choices in ways that make a difference in their lives” (Martin, Sugarman, & Thompson, 2003, p. 1), follows in this long tradition of concern with human freedom.
Definition
A variety of perspectives on agency exist (discussed below), and as such, there is no consensually agreed upon definition of agency. Although the literature on agency converges around shared themes, there is considerable variation in matters of emphasis and treatment of relevant features such as action, choice, reflection, affect, free will, intentionality, embodiment, creativity, resistance, imagination, and/or self-determination. In spite of these differences, however, there...
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Thrift, E. (2014). Agency. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_9
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