personal agency
Control over choices
Personal agency is the capacity to make choices and take actions that shape one's own life.
It encompasses the sense that you can influence outcomes rather than being entirely subject to external forces or circumstances.
Someone with strong personal agency feels capable of setting goals and pursuing them: She developed a sense of personal agency after years of feeling powerless.
The concept appears frequently in psychology, philosophy, and discussions of empowerment.
- free willAutonomous choice capacity
- autonomyIndependent decision-making capacity
- empowermentGaining authority or confidence
- taking chargeAssuming leadership or control
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
calling the shots · self-efficacy · volition · inner strength · decision-making · life choices · goal-setting · independence · own two feet · moral responsibility · skin in the game · authorship · informed consent · motivation · steering wheel · authenticity · agency · sovereignty
- autonomyfreedom, self-rule, independence, self-determination, free will
- Teen Autonomyindependence, self-determination, self-governance
- decision makingchoice, preference, picking, selection, options
- motivationmotivation, drive, motivate, inspire, encouragement
- self-advocacy skillsspeaking up, assertiveness, boundary setting, self-expression, asking for help
- sexual freedomsexual liberation, sexual revolution, sexual freedom, free love, consent
personal agencyhelplessness
Lacking ability to cope
powerlessness · subjugation · learned helplessness · fate · determinism
personal agencyimpotence
Lack of strength or power
inefficacy · futility · inertia · incapacity · inability
personal agencyfate
Predetermined course of events
determinism · predestination · fatalism · destiny · providence