Journal article
Reconceptualizing Agency within the Life Course: The Power of Looking Ahead
The American journal of sociology, Vol.120(5), pp.1429-1472
03/01/2015
DOI: 10.1086/681216
PMCID: PMC4496002
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.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Reconceptualizing Agency within the Life Course: The Power of Looking Ahead
- Creators
- Steven Hitlin - Univ Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 USAMonica Kirkpatrick Johnson - Washington State Univ, Pullman, WA 99164 USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The American journal of sociology, Vol.120(5), pp.1429-1472
- DOI
- 10.1086/681216
- PMID
- 26166833
- PMCID
- PMC4496002
- NLM abbreviation
- AJS
- ISSN
- 0002-9602
- eISSN
- 1537-5390
- Publisher
- Univ Chicago Press
- Number of pages
- 44
- Grant note
- R01HD044138 / EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) R01MH042843 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R01HD044138 / Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) MH42843 / National Institute of Mental Health; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/01/2015
- Academic Unit
- Sociology and Criminology
- Record Identifier
- 9984306240502771
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