Agency, values, and well-being: a human development model

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

This paper argues that feelings of agency are linked to human well-being through a sequence of adaptive mechanisms that promote human development, once existential conditions become permissive. In the first part, we elaborate on the evolutionary logic of this model and outline why an evolutionary perspective is helpful to understand changes in values that give feelings of agency greater weight in shaping human well-being. In the second part, we test the key links in this model with data from the World Values Surveys using ecological regressions and multi-level models, covering some 80 societies worldwide. Empirically, we demonstrate evidence for the following sequence: (1) in response to widening opportunities of life, people place stronger emphasis on emancipative values, (2) in response to a stronger emphasis on emancipative values, feelings of agency gain greater weight in shaping people's life satisfaction, (3) in response to a greater impact of agency feelings on life satisfaction, the level of life satisfaction itself rises. Further analyses show that this model is culturally universal because taking into account the strength of a society's western tradition does not render insignificant these adaptive linkages. Precisely because of its universality, this is indeed a "human" development model in a most general sense.
Original languageEnglish
JournalSocial Indicators Research
Volume97
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)43-63
Number of pages21
ISSN0303-8300
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 05.2010
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Politics
  • Gender and Diversity
  • Agency feelings, Cultural evolution, Emancipative values, Human development, Knowledge economies, Life satisfaction, Well-being

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Qianxun Chen

Activities

  1. "10 Jahre Vertrag von Lissabon"
  2. How Education Made Computers Personal
  3. Teach About US - Innovative Ways of Teaching English: The Election Project 2020.
  4. 1st conference of the COST Action IS0906 "Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies" - COST ISO0906 2011
  5. Fakultät W allgemein (Organisation)
  6. Chemistry within a Circular Economy
  7. It’s hard to part with gains, but what about losses. Contribution and Distribution of Benefits and Burdens in Integrative Negotiations
  8. 2nd European Communication Conference - 2008
  9. transcript Verlag (Herausgeber (Verlag))
  10. ANAKON 2015
  11. Environmental Management Accounting Support for Rice Husk Processing Alternatives: Integrating Environmental Risk Considerations into Investment Decisions
  12. Gamification
  13. Perspectives on digital teaching and learning and AI in education II
  14. Biophysical variability and politico-economic singularity: Responses of livestock numbers in South Mongolian nomadic herding
  15. Photodegradation and aerobic biodegradability of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor Captopril and identification of transformation products by LC MS/MS.
  16. International Relations (Fachzeitschrift)
  17. Xerochore Final Conference on Supporting Drought Policies in Europe - 2010
  18. Vis-à-Vis
  19. Remixing Digital Cities
  20. Click Green, Choose Greener: Investigating the Spillover Effect of Voluntary Carbon Offsetting on subsequent Pro-Environmental Decisions
  21. Workshop Karrieresystem Hochschule 2012
  22. Einführung in das Asylrecht
  23. Optimizing water resources in Egypt: The case for sediment deduction at the High Aswan dam reservoir
  24. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. (Verlag)
  25. Towards the Design of Active Pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) mineralizing readily in the Environment