Main description:

This volume presents the reader with a stimulating tapestry of essays exploring the nature of personal autonomy, self-determination, and agency, and their role in human optimal functioning at multiple levels of analysis from personal to societal and cross-cultural. The starting point for these explorations is self-determination theory, an integrated theory of human motivation and healthy development which has been under development for more than three decades (Deci & Ryan, 2000). As the contributions will make clear, psychological autonomy is a concept that forms the bridge between the dependence of human behavior on biological and socio-cultural determinants on the one side, and people's ability to be free, reflective, and transforming agents who can challenge these dependencies, on the other. The authors within this volume share a vision that human autonomy is a fundamental pre-condition for both individuals and groups to thrive, and that without understanding the nature and mechanisms of autonomous agency vital social and human problems cannot be satisfactory addressed.

This multidisciplinary team of researchers will collectively explore the nature of personal autonomy, considering its developmental origins, its expression within relationships, its importance within groups and organizational functioning, and its role in promoting to the democratic and economic development of societies. The book is aimed toward developmental, social, personality, and cross-cultural psychologists, towards researchers and practitioners' in the areas of education, health and medicine, social work and, economics, and also towards all interested in creating a more sustainable and just world society through promoting individual freedom and agency.

This volume will provide

a theoretical and conceptual account of the nature and psychological mechanisms of personal motivational autonomy and human agency;

rich multidisciplinary empirical evidence supporting the claims and propositions about the nature of human autonomy and capacities for self-regulation;

explanations of how and why different psychological and socio-cultural conditions may play a role in promoting or undermining people's autonomous motivation and well-being,

discussions of how the promotion of human autonomy can positively influence environmental protection, democracy promotion and economic prosperity.

Contents:

Introduction. The Struggle for Autonomy in Personal and Cultural contexts: An Overview
Valery I. Chirkov, Kennon M. Sheldon, and Richard M. Ryan
Part 1. A Theoretical Context of Human Autonomy, People's Well-Being, and Happiness
1. Positive Psychology and Self-Determination Theory: A Natural Interface
Kennon M. Sheldon and Richard M. Ryan
2. A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Social, Institutional, Cultural, and Economic Supports for Autonomy and their Importance for Well-being
Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci
3. Dialectical Relationships among Human Autonomy, the Brain, and Culture
Valery I. Chirkov
Part II. Human autonomy across cultures and domains of life: health, education, interpersonal relationships, and work
4. The Role of Autonomy in Promoting Healthy Dyadic, Familial, and Parenting Relationships across Cultures
C. Raymond Knee and Ahmet Uysal
5. Do Social Institutions Necessarily Suppress Individuals' Need for Autonomy? The Possibility of Schools as Autonomy Promoting Contexts across the Globe
Johnmarshall Reeve and Avi Assor
6. Well-being, Physical Health, and Personal Autonomy
Geoffrey Williams, Pedro J. Teixeira, Eliana Carraca, and Ken Resnicow
7. Autonomy in the Workplace: An Essential Ingredient to Employee Engagement and Well-Being in Every Culture
Marylene Gagne and Devasheesh Bhave
Part III. Human autonomy in modern economy, democracy development, and sustainability
8. Capitalism and Autonomy
Tim Kasser
9. Economy, People's Personal Autonomy, and Well-Being
Maurizio Pugno
10. The Development of Conceptions of Personal Autonomy, Rights and Democracy and their Relation to Psychological Well-Being
Charles C. Helwig and Justin McNeil
11. Personal Autonomy and Environmental Sustainability
Luc G. Pelletier, Daniel Baxter, and Veronika Huta