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Related Experiment Video

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Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Published on: October 28, 2020

The Psychological Self as Actor, Agent, and Author.

Dan P McAdams¹

¹Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL dmca@northwestern.edu.

Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science

|July 15, 2015

Summary

The psychological self develops across the lifespan, evolving from a social actor to a motivated agent, and finally an autobiographical author. This actor-agent-author framework integrates diverse psychological and social science findings on the self.

Keywords:

autobiographical memory human development narrative identity self

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Social Sciences
Developmental Psychology

Background:

The psychological self is a complex construct involving the subjective 'I' and the constructed 'Me'.
Existing theories offer fragmented views of self-development across the human life course.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose an integrative theory of the psychological self.
To synthesize diverse findings on the self from multiple disciplines.
To illuminate the developmental trajectory of selfhood.

Main Methods:

Conceptual synthesis of existing theories and research findings.
Development of the actor-agent-author framework.
Application of the framework to understand self-regulation, self-esteem, and self-continuity.

Main Results:

The self evolves through three distinct, yet integrated, layers: actor, agent, and author.
The actor layer emphasizes social roles and performance traits.
The agent layer highlights personal goals, values, and future projects.
The author layer focuses on constructing a life narrative for purpose and continuity.

Conclusions:

The actor-agent-author framework provides a unified model of the psychological self.
This model integrates findings from social, personality, cognitive, cultural, and developmental psychology.
The framework offers new insights into self-regulation, self-esteem, self-continuity, and self-culture relationships.