Autonomy in Families

Synonyms

Independent; Individuation; Self-determination; Self-directed; Self-reliant

Introduction

Autonomy is one of the three cornerstones of a healthy identity, along with competence and relatedness, and entails individuals’ capacity to be personally effective in adapting to, and producing changes in, their environment (Deci and Ryan 1985).

Theoretical Context for Concept

While autonomous functioning was initially envisioned as a quality inhering within an individual, resulting from a sequential mastery of developmental tasks, contemporary theorists and clinicians find it more useful to view autonomy as bi-directionally connected with the capacity for relatedness (McGoldrick et al. 2011). In other words, the more comfortable one feels about being separate, the better one can connect with others, and vice versa. From a family development standpoint, the process of differentiating from one’s family of origin creates the space for autonomy, leading to an increasingly elective and...