Journal article
Reconceptualizing Agency within the Life Course: The Power of Looking Ahead
The American journal of sociology, Vol.120(5), pp.1429-1472
03/2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/107777
PMID: 26166833
Abstract
Empirical treatments of agency have not caught up with theoretical explication; empirical projects almost always focus on concurrent beliefs about one's ability to act successfully without sufficiently attending to temporality. The authors suggest that understanding the modern life course necessitates a multidimensional understanding of subjective agency involving (a) perceived capacities and (b) perceived life chances, or expectations about what life holds in store. The authors also suggest that a proper understanding of agency's potential power within a life course necessitates moving beyond the domain-specific expectations more typical of past sociological work. Using the Youth Development Study, the authors employ a scale of general life expectations in adolescence to explore the potential influence of a general sense of optimistic life expectations in addition to the traditional approach on a range of important outcomes.
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Details
- Title
- Reconceptualizing Agency within the Life Course: The Power of Looking Ahead
- Creators
- Steven HitlinMonica Kirkpatrick Johnson
- Publication Details
- The American journal of sociology, Vol.120(5), pp.1429-1472
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Publisher
- United States
- Grant note
- R01 MH042843 / NIMH NIH HHS R01 HD044138 / NICHD NIH HHS
- Identifiers
- 99900547364601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article