Sociocultural Variation in Models of Agency: Implications for Choice, Motivation, and Well-Being

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project examines cultural variation in the understandings, experience, and operation of human agency with a focus on models of agency. People everywhere regard themselves as agentic and have a sense of themselves as an "I" who is doing something, but what they experience themselves as doing can vary dramatically because they engage different models of agency. For those engaged in independent cultural contexts, agency is often experienced as individualized or disjoint, as primarily a result of one's own desires, goals, and intentions. For those in interdependent cultural contexts, agency is frequently experienced as conjoint, a consequence of the engagement of the person with others and of the awareness of reciprocal obligations and expectations. In this research, the focus is on the nature of the active "I" who is doing something. Although agency is often thought to be synonymous with autonomy and "free will", it is increasingly evident that agency assumes culture-specific forms. The project is organized around three specific hypotheses: 1. In relatively independent cultural contexts, actions will be associated with normatively good outcomes when one's own interests and intentions are experienced and understood as the source of these actions. In relatively interdependent cultural contexts, however, actions will be associated with normatively good outcomes when the interests and intentions of relevant others are experienced and understood as the sources of these actions. 2. Independent cultural contexts are characterized by the pervasive distribution of disjoint models of agency that promote and require a focus on one's own interests and intentions, whereas interdependent cultural contexts are characterized by the pervasive distribution of conjoint models of agency that promote and require a focus on the expectations of and obligations to others. 3. In relatively independent cultural contexts well-being is associated with a sense of disjoint agency, whereas in relatively interdependent contexts well-being is associated with a sense of conjoint agency. The research addresses classic theoretical issues concerning freedom, responsibility, and the role of others in individual behavior. The results should have important implications for basic research on the mutual constitution of culture and psychological process, and for further analyzing the relationship between mental health and sociocultural context.