Agency, Values, and Well-Being: A Human Development Model.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Evolutionary Science

Background:

• Human well-being is influenced by feelings of agency.
• Understanding the adaptive mechanisms linking agency to well-being is crucial for human development.
• An evolutionary perspective can illuminate value changes that prioritize agency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and empirically test a model linking feelings of agency to human well-being through adaptive mechanisms.
• To investigate the evolutionary logic behind the increasing importance of agency in shaping well-being.
• To examine the cross-cultural universality of this model.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the World Values Surveys, encompassing approximately 80 societies.
• Employed ecological regressions and multi-level models to analyze the proposed sequence.
• Tested the adaptive linkages across diverse cultural contexts.

Main Results:

• Widening life opportunities correlate with increased emphasis on emancipative values.
• Greater emphasis on emancipative values strengthens the impact of agency feelings on life satisfaction.
• Increased influence of agency feelings on life satisfaction leads to higher overall life satisfaction.
• The adaptive sequence remains significant across cultures, irrespective of Western tradition's influence.

Conclusions:

• Feelings of agency are adaptively linked to human well-being and development.
• The model demonstrates a universal sequence: opportunities foster emancipative values, which enhance agency's impact on satisfaction, ultimately raising well-being.
• This represents a broadly applicable model of human development.