Perspectives on the Agentic Self in Counseling

Catalog description

Albert Bandura has said that “The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one's life is the essence of humanness.” Human agency includes intentionality and forethought, self-regulation, and self-reflection about one’s efficacy and the meaning of one's life projects. In their agentic behaviors, people are producers of individual and social actions. Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort. In this course we will consider the self from the perspectives of five approaches to counseling and psychotherapy.