Publication details
Concepts of Autonomy in Emerging Adulthood and Their Perception by Czech Emerging Adults
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In the chapter authors provide a review of the conceptualizations of autonomy. The review considers both the individual differences perspective and the developmental perspective on autonomy. A number of various conceptualizations of autonomy has been proposed from both perspectives that may be placed in two broad categories – separation autonomy, with a clearly developmental and objective connotations, and agentic autonomy, which is subjective and with a more complex developmental relevance. In emerging adulthood both these perspectives meet and interact. In a series of interviews, a small heterogeneous sample of Czech emerging adults not only identifies the various components of various conceptualizations of autonomy. Doing so, they show the relevance of the theoretical considerations of autonomy and also illustrate how different aspects of autonomy interact in the period of emerging adulthood. Autonomy in emerging adulthood seems to act both as a goal and as a tool for achieving other developmental goals. But, as the attempt to relate utterances about autonomy to the five characteristics of emerging adulthood suggests, the openness of the possibilities and the not-as-established status of the period of emerging adulthood allow for a wide range of individually chosen and justified developmental trajectories. In the interviews, this decision-making burden or overhead is abundantly present. |
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