Lecture 1
Who is this person and how did (s)he become that way?
- Experiences and acts (present)
- Context
- Person
- Development (past)
- Goals and motivation (future)
History and narratives
- Human groups get cultural histories due to the continued
transmission of conventions
- Cultures develop oral and then written traditions and stories
about who 'we' are and how 'we' came to be
- By telling these stories and reflecting on them we change our
understanding of who we are
- The histories of individuals can be located within these larger
histories of the multiple 'we's' to which we belong
Three perspectives on personality
1. Natural origins → A new organism in nature (= Universal human nature)
2. Cultural origins → A new person in a culture (= Particular human cultures)
3. Individual origins → A new subject of an individual life (= A singular human life)
Some common confusions and mistakes
1. Naturalizing cultural categories (e.g. treating race as a natural kind)
2. Reducing every aspect to cultural narratives (e.g. not taking seriously the evolved physical body and brain as
important limits on what is culturally possible)
3. Forgetting about the cultural and subjective position from where the author speaks
a. Any theory that is narrated is influenced by the narrator
b. His or her particular position in history, in culture, in society matters a great deal
c. In many aspects of personality theories this cannot be erased
4. Treating all accounts as equally subjective opinions
Two key steps in the evolution of human cooperation
1. Obligate collaborative foraging
- Humans have developed very strong skills for collaborating with each other
- Crucial in this is the strong tendency of already very young children towards joint intentionality. Humans
have a great capacity for shared goals and shared mental states (intersubjectivity).
- Joint intentionality = A concept used (by Tomasello) to describe a uniquely human evolutionary
adaptation. It implies that humans are extremely attuned to sharing their intentions and working
towards joint intentions. This sets the stage for forms of intensive cooperation for surpassing that
of other mammals.
- Within this context shared meanings and shared stories can come into existence.
- Humans are from birth particularly attuned to sharing mental states with other humans.
2. Group-mindedness
- Given the strong possibility of shared intentionality, humans also develop a capability for conventions.
- Thus children from then on are born in a world full of pre-existing conventional structures that they grow
into and only later and partially become aware of.
- Conventional cultural practices = A concept used for a second step in evolution in which
humans are starting to understand themselves as part of a shared community of 'us'. Cultural
traditions are distinguished from behavioral traditions. In the latter useful behaviors are learned,
but only in the first conventions (that may not have direct use) are transmitted over generations.
this allows for much more complex symbolic interaction and sets the stage for cultural
development (and intergroup conflict)
- In this they are introduced into a pre-existing ‘symbolic order’: the universe of signs and meanings
typical for human societies.
1
,Symbolic order = Concept referring to the fact that the world into which we are born is not simply a natural 'umwelt', but
structured by the symbolic interaction over the generations which have shaped a particular pre-formed understanding of
the world that shapes our world-understanding and our 'being-in-the-world'
- "Cultural practices are different from behavioral traditions because their practitioners understand them as 'shared'
in the group; that is, they understand them as conventional. We have all 'agreed' to do them in a particular way,
even though we all know that there are other ways we could do them."
Example: Emergence of schemata
Schema = A particular memory-pattern resulting from nurture (learning history,
interaction of first and second nature), which pre-structures our understanding of
new situations.
- Universal human nature: collaboration and group mindedness
- Particular cultural histories
- Individual life story: nurture, learning history
Memory-structure developed in the repeated interactions with others that
contains crucial pre-conceptions about self, others and the world.
Nature = Does not directly refer here to distinguishing nature and nurture at an
individual level. Nature here refers to 'human biology' - that is approaching the human
organism within its ecology and as part of an evolutionary history. The natural sciences
(mainly biology) are most appropriate here.
Culture = Refers to the development of a specifically human ecology which is characterized by
'joint intentionality' and 'symbolic interaction' and is part of a cultural history which is
traditionally referred to as 'civilization'. The humanities (anthropology, sociology, political
economy) are most appropriate here.
Subject = Refers to the undeniable first-person experience that emerges from the birth of a
new human organism (nature) into a pre-existing world (culture). It is part of the individual life history. Phenomenology,
existentialism and life stories are most appropriately here.
Nurture = The specific ways in which the direct environment in which we are born shapes us into an individual
(interaction of first and second nature).
1. First nature = The influence of human evolutionary history on individual development
2. Second nature = The influence of human cultural history on individual development
The psychological self as actor, agent and author
The psychological self = May be construed as a reflexive arrangement of the subjective 'I' and the constructed 'me',
evolving and expanding over the human life course. The subjective 'I' refers to the phenomenological first-person
perspective. The constructed 'me' refers to what is made of the person in the interactions with the world. The reflexive
arrangement refers to the bi-directional process in which the construction is shaped by the first-person self-awareness
AND how this first-person self-awareness is shaped by the constructions. The psychological self begins life as a social
actor.
1. Actor = The first layer of the ‘psychological self’ as envisioned by McAdams. It portrays the human being as an
actor on the social stage of life. Temperamental features result in typical interactional patterns with others
that can be interpreted as agentic and communal strivings and that result in the stable patterns known as
the BIG 5 traits.
→ First we discover what society says we are; then we build our identity on performance in that part. If we uphold
our part in the performance, we are rewarded with social affirmation of our identity. It is hardly an exaggeration,
then, to say we are created in the performance. If we bungle the performance, show that we do not merit the part,
we are destroyed- not figuratively but literally.
- The self as social actor, encompassing semantic representations of traits, social roles, and other
features of self that result in and from repeated performances on the social stage of life.
- Persona = masker & karakter = what your meaning is in the perspective of others
- Appearance, i.e. the way one appears to others. Which may well be disconnected from
subjective experience.
2. Agent = The second layer of the ‘psychological self', which constitutes a reflexive move from the standpoint of
the actor. The toddler starts to envision him er herself as having certain aims, goals, desires and means. In the
‘actor’ stage the behaviors associated with those strivings were present and interpreted by others, but now the
toddler starts to understand them as óf him or herself.
2
, → To be an agent is to make choices and, as a result of those choices, to
move forward in life in a self-determined and goal-directed manner.
Human agency suggests intention, volition, will, purpose, and some
modicum of personal control in life. In other words, even though infants
can be seen to express agency, human beings do not consciously and
reflectively understand themselves as motivated agents in a full sense
until much later.
3. Author = The third layer of the ‘psychological self’, which constitutes a
reflexive move from the standpoint of the agent. Here individual identity is
shaped by a larger individual narrative (life story) with a past, present and
anticipated future. Self-understanding now means to see oneself as being
shaped by the past and as anticipating the future in understanding the present. The individual narrative is not
pure individual, but a copy-paste and adaptationist version of big and small stories internalized from the broader
cultural surroundings.
(integrating and reflecting on past, present and future) → The I become an autobiographical author; the Me
becomes the story it tells. The internalized and evolving amalgam of self stories - what is now typically referred to
as a narrative identity- aims to integrate the reconstructed past, experienced present, and imagined future.
The psychological self as actor, agent and author
The psychological self may be construed as a reflexive arrangement of the subjective “I” and the constructed “Me”,
evolving and expanding over the human life course. The psychological self begins life as a social actor, construed in
terms of performance traits and social roles. By the end of childhood, the self has become a motivated agent, too, as
personal goals, motives, values, and envisioned projects for the future become central features of how the I conceives of
the Me. A third layer of selfhood begins to form in the adolescent and emerging adulthood years, when the self as
autobiographical author aims to construct a story of the Me, to provide adult life with broad purpose and a dynamic sense
of temporal continuity. An integrative theory that envisions the psychological self as a developing I–Me configuration of
actor, agent, and author helps to synthesize a wide range of conceptions and findings on the self from social, personality,
cognitive, cultural, and developmental psychology and from sociology and other social sciences. The actor–agent–author
framework also sheds new light on studies of self-regulation, self-esteem, self-continuity, and the relationship between
self and culture.
Findings from case studies in psychological science, as well as an experimental literature, attesting to the functional
independence of semantic (abstract, trait-based) and episodic (concrete, event-based) knowledge about the self.
Whereas people may initially derive information about themselves from concrete personal experiences, the information is
ultimately summarized into general semantic categories, like trait labels. Retrieving the semantic, trait-based information,
therefore, may not typically require accessing the episodic, autobiographical store.
If semantic and episodic features of self-understanding are functionally independent then it follows that a person may lay
claim to a 'trait self' and a separate-but-equal 'story self'.
- The 'I' may reflexively construe the 'Me' as both a collection of abstract traits and an anthology of personal
episodes or stories about my life. The traits and stories may have little to do with each other.
McAdams theory contends that human selves understand themselves from three different psychological standpoints:
actors, agents and authors. Each of the three corresponds to three developmental layers of psychological selfhood,
emerging at different points in ontogeny and following their own respective developmental trajectories over the human life
course.
1. Social actor = Semantic representations of traits, social roles and other features of self that result in and from
repeated performances on the social stage of life.
2. Motivated agent = Specifying personal goals, motivates, values, hopes and fears, and other features that involve
the important decisions and choices that a person makes regarding exploration and commitment to life projects
3. Autobiographical author = The self-as-storyteller who ultimately aims to burnish and synthesize episodic
information about the self into a coherent and integrative life story. Beginning in the emerging adulthood years,
the autobiographical author works to formulate a meaningful narrative for life, integrating the reconstructed
episodic past and the imagined episodic future in such a way as to explain, for the self and for others, why the
actor does what it does, why the agent wants what it wants, and who the self was, is, and will be as a developing
person in time.
3
, The self starts as a social actor focused on behavior
regulation for effective social performance. In middle
childhood, it becomes a motivated agent driven by goals
and values, impacting self-esteem. By late adolescence
and adulthood, the self acts as an autobiographical
author, creating a coherent life narrative to maintain
self-continuity across past, present, and future.
Regardless of context, a fully formed adult continuously
embodies these three dimensions, reflecting on and
working on the self from these perspectives.
The social actor: self-ascribed traits and social roles
Humans evolved to be social actors within complex, hierarchical groups, constantly seeking social acceptance and status.
They form alliances, compete, cooperate, and employ various strategies to navigate social dynamics. The self is initially
shaped by social behavior within the group, thriving or suffering based on the quality of social performance. Identity is
built on these performances, with social affirmation reinforcing successful roles and failure leading to social rejection.
Human newborns, even before self-awareness, begin to display distinct temperaments that shape their social
performance. These early behavioral styles, influenced by genetics, are evident in their interactions and responses to
feedback from caregivers. By around 18 months, children recognize themselves in mirrors and videos, begin using
self-referential language, and experience emotions like pride and embarrassment, marking the emergence of the self as a
social actor. Young children describe themselves in concrete terms, while by age 10, they use trait-based descriptions. As
they grow, they increasingly categorize themselves using dispositional traits, influenced by their own observations and
feedback from others, simplifying but effectively summarizing their social behavior.
The self as a social actor continues to evolve into adulthood, with individuals increasingly viewing themselves as
agreeable, conscientious, and less neurotic. This development is informed by both broad trait attributions and situational
understandings. Adults recognize the impact of social roles and context on their behavior, adapting their performances
accordingly. Social roles, such as parent or worker, come with expectations but allow for personal improvisation. Over
time, investing in these roles can even alter one's self-perception of traits. Throughout life, individuals monitor their
performances and feedback from others, shaping their identity based on self-attributed traits, social roles, and their
reputation among important audiences.
The motivated agent: goals, values and plans for the future
Human agency involves making choices and moving forward in a self-determined, goal-directed manner, encompassing
intention, volition, and control. While human behavior, including that of infants, is often goal-directed, the self becomes a
fully motivated agent when individuals consciously understand and define themselves by their personal goals and values.
This self-awareness develops as people set and organize their behavior around long-term goals and plans, typically
occurring later in life. Understanding oneself as a motivated agent evolves over the life course, aligning self-perception
with goal-directed actions.
- By age 1, infants show a basic understanding of agency, distinguishing between intentional and accidental
actions and preferring to imitate intentional behavior. By age 4, children develop a theory of mind, understanding
that people act based on beliefs and desires. This allows them to see others as motivated agents and to project
agency onto inanimate objects and imaginary beings. Reflexively, they begin to recognize their own desires and
goals, attributing agency to themselves.
- The 5-7 year shift refers to a developmental period typically occurring between the ages of 5 and 7 during which
children undergo significant cognitive and behavioral changes, becoming more rational, planful, and
goal-oriented. This period often coincides with increased responsibility and involvement in tasks such as
childcare, household chores, and formal schooling. Classic developmental theories from the mid-20th century,
such as those of Erikson, Piaget, Freud, Mead, Kohlberg, and Vygotsky, all converge on the idea that during this
time, children learn to shape their desires and wants into socially acceptable goals.
- Around the age of 8 or 9, children begin to define themselves through experiences in various contexts, aligning
with culturally valued goals. They start to articulate personal goals alongside traits and social roles, expanding
their sense of self into the future. Personal goals are closely linked to values and ideology, and their pursuit marks
a significant aspect of identity development in adolescence. Emerging adults must commit to valued possible
selves, investing in meaningful goals that promise the best returns for the future.
While traits tend to stay consistent over time, goals evolve in response to life events. In early adulthood, focus is on
education, intimacy, and career. Middle age centers on family, security, and property, while older adults prioritize health,
retirement, and community involvement. Overall, goals shift from self-expansion to relationship quality as people age.
4
Who is this person and how did (s)he become that way?
- Experiences and acts (present)
- Context
- Person
- Development (past)
- Goals and motivation (future)
History and narratives
- Human groups get cultural histories due to the continued
transmission of conventions
- Cultures develop oral and then written traditions and stories
about who 'we' are and how 'we' came to be
- By telling these stories and reflecting on them we change our
understanding of who we are
- The histories of individuals can be located within these larger
histories of the multiple 'we's' to which we belong
Three perspectives on personality
1. Natural origins → A new organism in nature (= Universal human nature)
2. Cultural origins → A new person in a culture (= Particular human cultures)
3. Individual origins → A new subject of an individual life (= A singular human life)
Some common confusions and mistakes
1. Naturalizing cultural categories (e.g. treating race as a natural kind)
2. Reducing every aspect to cultural narratives (e.g. not taking seriously the evolved physical body and brain as
important limits on what is culturally possible)
3. Forgetting about the cultural and subjective position from where the author speaks
a. Any theory that is narrated is influenced by the narrator
b. His or her particular position in history, in culture, in society matters a great deal
c. In many aspects of personality theories this cannot be erased
4. Treating all accounts as equally subjective opinions
Two key steps in the evolution of human cooperation
1. Obligate collaborative foraging
- Humans have developed very strong skills for collaborating with each other
- Crucial in this is the strong tendency of already very young children towards joint intentionality. Humans
have a great capacity for shared goals and shared mental states (intersubjectivity).
- Joint intentionality = A concept used (by Tomasello) to describe a uniquely human evolutionary
adaptation. It implies that humans are extremely attuned to sharing their intentions and working
towards joint intentions. This sets the stage for forms of intensive cooperation for surpassing that
of other mammals.
- Within this context shared meanings and shared stories can come into existence.
- Humans are from birth particularly attuned to sharing mental states with other humans.
2. Group-mindedness
- Given the strong possibility of shared intentionality, humans also develop a capability for conventions.
- Thus children from then on are born in a world full of pre-existing conventional structures that they grow
into and only later and partially become aware of.
- Conventional cultural practices = A concept used for a second step in evolution in which
humans are starting to understand themselves as part of a shared community of 'us'. Cultural
traditions are distinguished from behavioral traditions. In the latter useful behaviors are learned,
but only in the first conventions (that may not have direct use) are transmitted over generations.
this allows for much more complex symbolic interaction and sets the stage for cultural
development (and intergroup conflict)
- In this they are introduced into a pre-existing ‘symbolic order’: the universe of signs and meanings
typical for human societies.
1
,Symbolic order = Concept referring to the fact that the world into which we are born is not simply a natural 'umwelt', but
structured by the symbolic interaction over the generations which have shaped a particular pre-formed understanding of
the world that shapes our world-understanding and our 'being-in-the-world'
- "Cultural practices are different from behavioral traditions because their practitioners understand them as 'shared'
in the group; that is, they understand them as conventional. We have all 'agreed' to do them in a particular way,
even though we all know that there are other ways we could do them."
Example: Emergence of schemata
Schema = A particular memory-pattern resulting from nurture (learning history,
interaction of first and second nature), which pre-structures our understanding of
new situations.
- Universal human nature: collaboration and group mindedness
- Particular cultural histories
- Individual life story: nurture, learning history
Memory-structure developed in the repeated interactions with others that
contains crucial pre-conceptions about self, others and the world.
Nature = Does not directly refer here to distinguishing nature and nurture at an
individual level. Nature here refers to 'human biology' - that is approaching the human
organism within its ecology and as part of an evolutionary history. The natural sciences
(mainly biology) are most appropriate here.
Culture = Refers to the development of a specifically human ecology which is characterized by
'joint intentionality' and 'symbolic interaction' and is part of a cultural history which is
traditionally referred to as 'civilization'. The humanities (anthropology, sociology, political
economy) are most appropriate here.
Subject = Refers to the undeniable first-person experience that emerges from the birth of a
new human organism (nature) into a pre-existing world (culture). It is part of the individual life history. Phenomenology,
existentialism and life stories are most appropriately here.
Nurture = The specific ways in which the direct environment in which we are born shapes us into an individual
(interaction of first and second nature).
1. First nature = The influence of human evolutionary history on individual development
2. Second nature = The influence of human cultural history on individual development
The psychological self as actor, agent and author
The psychological self = May be construed as a reflexive arrangement of the subjective 'I' and the constructed 'me',
evolving and expanding over the human life course. The subjective 'I' refers to the phenomenological first-person
perspective. The constructed 'me' refers to what is made of the person in the interactions with the world. The reflexive
arrangement refers to the bi-directional process in which the construction is shaped by the first-person self-awareness
AND how this first-person self-awareness is shaped by the constructions. The psychological self begins life as a social
actor.
1. Actor = The first layer of the ‘psychological self’ as envisioned by McAdams. It portrays the human being as an
actor on the social stage of life. Temperamental features result in typical interactional patterns with others
that can be interpreted as agentic and communal strivings and that result in the stable patterns known as
the BIG 5 traits.
→ First we discover what society says we are; then we build our identity on performance in that part. If we uphold
our part in the performance, we are rewarded with social affirmation of our identity. It is hardly an exaggeration,
then, to say we are created in the performance. If we bungle the performance, show that we do not merit the part,
we are destroyed- not figuratively but literally.
- The self as social actor, encompassing semantic representations of traits, social roles, and other
features of self that result in and from repeated performances on the social stage of life.
- Persona = masker & karakter = what your meaning is in the perspective of others
- Appearance, i.e. the way one appears to others. Which may well be disconnected from
subjective experience.
2. Agent = The second layer of the ‘psychological self', which constitutes a reflexive move from the standpoint of
the actor. The toddler starts to envision him er herself as having certain aims, goals, desires and means. In the
‘actor’ stage the behaviors associated with those strivings were present and interpreted by others, but now the
toddler starts to understand them as óf him or herself.
2
, → To be an agent is to make choices and, as a result of those choices, to
move forward in life in a self-determined and goal-directed manner.
Human agency suggests intention, volition, will, purpose, and some
modicum of personal control in life. In other words, even though infants
can be seen to express agency, human beings do not consciously and
reflectively understand themselves as motivated agents in a full sense
until much later.
3. Author = The third layer of the ‘psychological self’, which constitutes a
reflexive move from the standpoint of the agent. Here individual identity is
shaped by a larger individual narrative (life story) with a past, present and
anticipated future. Self-understanding now means to see oneself as being
shaped by the past and as anticipating the future in understanding the present. The individual narrative is not
pure individual, but a copy-paste and adaptationist version of big and small stories internalized from the broader
cultural surroundings.
(integrating and reflecting on past, present and future) → The I become an autobiographical author; the Me
becomes the story it tells. The internalized and evolving amalgam of self stories - what is now typically referred to
as a narrative identity- aims to integrate the reconstructed past, experienced present, and imagined future.
The psychological self as actor, agent and author
The psychological self may be construed as a reflexive arrangement of the subjective “I” and the constructed “Me”,
evolving and expanding over the human life course. The psychological self begins life as a social actor, construed in
terms of performance traits and social roles. By the end of childhood, the self has become a motivated agent, too, as
personal goals, motives, values, and envisioned projects for the future become central features of how the I conceives of
the Me. A third layer of selfhood begins to form in the adolescent and emerging adulthood years, when the self as
autobiographical author aims to construct a story of the Me, to provide adult life with broad purpose and a dynamic sense
of temporal continuity. An integrative theory that envisions the psychological self as a developing I–Me configuration of
actor, agent, and author helps to synthesize a wide range of conceptions and findings on the self from social, personality,
cognitive, cultural, and developmental psychology and from sociology and other social sciences. The actor–agent–author
framework also sheds new light on studies of self-regulation, self-esteem, self-continuity, and the relationship between
self and culture.
Findings from case studies in psychological science, as well as an experimental literature, attesting to the functional
independence of semantic (abstract, trait-based) and episodic (concrete, event-based) knowledge about the self.
Whereas people may initially derive information about themselves from concrete personal experiences, the information is
ultimately summarized into general semantic categories, like trait labels. Retrieving the semantic, trait-based information,
therefore, may not typically require accessing the episodic, autobiographical store.
If semantic and episodic features of self-understanding are functionally independent then it follows that a person may lay
claim to a 'trait self' and a separate-but-equal 'story self'.
- The 'I' may reflexively construe the 'Me' as both a collection of abstract traits and an anthology of personal
episodes or stories about my life. The traits and stories may have little to do with each other.
McAdams theory contends that human selves understand themselves from three different psychological standpoints:
actors, agents and authors. Each of the three corresponds to three developmental layers of psychological selfhood,
emerging at different points in ontogeny and following their own respective developmental trajectories over the human life
course.
1. Social actor = Semantic representations of traits, social roles and other features of self that result in and from
repeated performances on the social stage of life.
2. Motivated agent = Specifying personal goals, motivates, values, hopes and fears, and other features that involve
the important decisions and choices that a person makes regarding exploration and commitment to life projects
3. Autobiographical author = The self-as-storyteller who ultimately aims to burnish and synthesize episodic
information about the self into a coherent and integrative life story. Beginning in the emerging adulthood years,
the autobiographical author works to formulate a meaningful narrative for life, integrating the reconstructed
episodic past and the imagined episodic future in such a way as to explain, for the self and for others, why the
actor does what it does, why the agent wants what it wants, and who the self was, is, and will be as a developing
person in time.
3
, The self starts as a social actor focused on behavior
regulation for effective social performance. In middle
childhood, it becomes a motivated agent driven by goals
and values, impacting self-esteem. By late adolescence
and adulthood, the self acts as an autobiographical
author, creating a coherent life narrative to maintain
self-continuity across past, present, and future.
Regardless of context, a fully formed adult continuously
embodies these three dimensions, reflecting on and
working on the self from these perspectives.
The social actor: self-ascribed traits and social roles
Humans evolved to be social actors within complex, hierarchical groups, constantly seeking social acceptance and status.
They form alliances, compete, cooperate, and employ various strategies to navigate social dynamics. The self is initially
shaped by social behavior within the group, thriving or suffering based on the quality of social performance. Identity is
built on these performances, with social affirmation reinforcing successful roles and failure leading to social rejection.
Human newborns, even before self-awareness, begin to display distinct temperaments that shape their social
performance. These early behavioral styles, influenced by genetics, are evident in their interactions and responses to
feedback from caregivers. By around 18 months, children recognize themselves in mirrors and videos, begin using
self-referential language, and experience emotions like pride and embarrassment, marking the emergence of the self as a
social actor. Young children describe themselves in concrete terms, while by age 10, they use trait-based descriptions. As
they grow, they increasingly categorize themselves using dispositional traits, influenced by their own observations and
feedback from others, simplifying but effectively summarizing their social behavior.
The self as a social actor continues to evolve into adulthood, with individuals increasingly viewing themselves as
agreeable, conscientious, and less neurotic. This development is informed by both broad trait attributions and situational
understandings. Adults recognize the impact of social roles and context on their behavior, adapting their performances
accordingly. Social roles, such as parent or worker, come with expectations but allow for personal improvisation. Over
time, investing in these roles can even alter one's self-perception of traits. Throughout life, individuals monitor their
performances and feedback from others, shaping their identity based on self-attributed traits, social roles, and their
reputation among important audiences.
The motivated agent: goals, values and plans for the future
Human agency involves making choices and moving forward in a self-determined, goal-directed manner, encompassing
intention, volition, and control. While human behavior, including that of infants, is often goal-directed, the self becomes a
fully motivated agent when individuals consciously understand and define themselves by their personal goals and values.
This self-awareness develops as people set and organize their behavior around long-term goals and plans, typically
occurring later in life. Understanding oneself as a motivated agent evolves over the life course, aligning self-perception
with goal-directed actions.
- By age 1, infants show a basic understanding of agency, distinguishing between intentional and accidental
actions and preferring to imitate intentional behavior. By age 4, children develop a theory of mind, understanding
that people act based on beliefs and desires. This allows them to see others as motivated agents and to project
agency onto inanimate objects and imaginary beings. Reflexively, they begin to recognize their own desires and
goals, attributing agency to themselves.
- The 5-7 year shift refers to a developmental period typically occurring between the ages of 5 and 7 during which
children undergo significant cognitive and behavioral changes, becoming more rational, planful, and
goal-oriented. This period often coincides with increased responsibility and involvement in tasks such as
childcare, household chores, and formal schooling. Classic developmental theories from the mid-20th century,
such as those of Erikson, Piaget, Freud, Mead, Kohlberg, and Vygotsky, all converge on the idea that during this
time, children learn to shape their desires and wants into socially acceptable goals.
- Around the age of 8 or 9, children begin to define themselves through experiences in various contexts, aligning
with culturally valued goals. They start to articulate personal goals alongside traits and social roles, expanding
their sense of self into the future. Personal goals are closely linked to values and ideology, and their pursuit marks
a significant aspect of identity development in adolescence. Emerging adults must commit to valued possible
selves, investing in meaningful goals that promise the best returns for the future.
While traits tend to stay consistent over time, goals evolve in response to life events. In early adulthood, focus is on
education, intimacy, and career. Middle age centers on family, security, and property, while older adults prioritize health,
retirement, and community involvement. Overall, goals shift from self-expansion to relationship quality as people age.
4
