Self-authorship is defined by Robert Kegan as an "ideology, an internal personal identity, a self-authorship that can coordinate, integrate, act upon, or invent values, beliefs, convictions, generalizations, ideals, abstractions, interpersonal loyalties, and intrapersonal states. It is no longer authored by them, it authors them and thereby achieves a personal authority."
Contents
- Three dimensions of self authorship
- Theoretical assumptions
- Relationships involved in self authorship
- Evolution of Self Authorship
- Elements of Self Authorship
- Developmentally effective experiences for providing self authorship
- Leading factors in development of self authorship in diverse cultures
- References
Self-authorship is distinguished from the broader subject of self-evolution. Self authorship is only a single phase of development within the lifelong process of self-evolution. Instead of depending on external values, beliefs, and interpersonal loyalties, self-authorship relies on internal generation and coordination of one's beliefs, values and internal loyalties.
Self-authorship spans over three dimensions: cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal. It is based on theory involving adult learning and gaining of knowledge with the product of self-authorship including learning and growth. The concept of the "object" and the concept of the "self" make up self-authorship. One is not born with self-authorship. There are steps to attain self authorship which include following external formulas, then crossroads and eventually obtaining self-authorship. There are elements of self-authorship that include trusting the internal voice, building an internal foundation and securing internal commitments.
Not every experience is an experience where one can work towards self-authorship. The experiences that help guide people to self-authorship are called developmentally effective experiences. These experiences allow for others to look at the world around them and search deep within themselves in order to figure what their opinions are as to why and how these opinions to be shaped. In addition, these experiences allow for the person to rely on one's internal beliefs in order to make decisions.
Also, cultural factors also play a role in developing self-authorship. In general African Americans, identity dissonance in relational dissonance are catalysts in the development of self-authorship. However, for Caucasian Americans, only identity dissonance is a catalyst in the development of self-authorship.
Three dimensions of self-authorship
Self-authorship consists of three dimensions: cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. “Self-authored people employ complex cognitive processes of meaning-making in ways that recognize the socially constructed nature of knowledge (cognitive) while also keeping in mind their own beliefs, values, and goals (interpersonal),” as well as those of others (intrapersonal).
Theoretical assumptions
Self-authorship is grounded in two assumptions about adult learning and knowledge. The first assumption states people create knowledge by interpreting their personal experiences or what is known as constructivism. This focuses on the meaning that is made of the experience from an individual perspective. The second assumption is that self-authorship has an underlying structure that is developmental in nature, In other words, as one continues to mature, his or her self-authorship also continues to develop. How one organizes and identifies with his or her experiences continues to change.
Although many may think the products of continuous changes in self-authorship are accumulation of knowledge, skills and information, this is not the case. The true products of continuous changes in self-authorship are learning and growth.
Relationships involved in self authorship
The relationship between "subject" and "object" are what make up self authorship. Subject refers to the elements of organizing that one identifiers with. It is inseparable from the self. Object refers to the information that gets organized. The elements that one can reflect on for future reference. When going through the subject-object transitions, the structure of the meaning making or the self authorship becomes more complex.
Evolution of Self-Authorship
As one continues to distance themselves from depending on external authorities for beliefs, identities and social relationships, self authorship begins to evolve.There are three stages involved in self-authorship.
Stage One: Following External Formulas
Those in this stage rely on external formulas for what one believes, how to construct one's identity and how to guide social relationships.
Stage Two: Crossroads
This is a transitional period. In this period, one is in between relying on external formulas and achieving self-authorship. The conflict people in this stage are experiencing is between the values he or she is developing that are integral to the sense of self and the demands he or she experiences in the roles and relationships with others.
Stage 3: Self- Authorship
This is the pinnacle of the evolution of self-authorship. In this stage, one is able to be unique and express his or her internal authority. One has strength to stand apart from the mainstream. One's responsibility lies in interpreting experiences based not on other's values and ideas but trusting one's internal voices.
Elements of Self Authorship
Trusting the internal voice
By trusting the internal voice, one realizes that although reality is out of their control, one can control how they react to reality. By using internal voices as a way to shape reactions to external events, confidence in using personal beliefs and values is increased.
Building an internal foundation
One consciously works to create an internal foundation to guide reactions to reality. One does this by combining one's identity, relationships, beliefs and values into a set of internal commitments from which to act upon.
Securing internal commitments
This happens when one shifts from making internal commitments to actually acting upon them.
Developmentally effective experiences for providing self-authorship
Not every experience is an effective experience for providing self-authorship. However there are experiences that do help to provide self-authorship. One experience involves increasing awareness, understanding and openness to diversity. This allows for one to become more open and understanding of differences and see how one's own background affected how one identifies socially.
Another experience involves exploring and establishing a basis for beliefs, choices and actions. This allows for one to think for one's self and to stand up for one's beliefs and challenge those that do not have the same beliefs.
An additional experience involves one developing a sense of identity to guide choices. In this experience, one learns from other's mistakes or challenges and evaluated one's own choices and behaviors. From this, one make's deliberate decisions about how to live one's life.
The last experience involves increasing awareness of openness to responsibility for own learning. During this experience, one learns to take responsibility for one's own learning and understand how learning new things influences life and identity.
Leading factors in development of self-authorship in diverse cultures
According to Jane Pizzolato and other researchers: cultural, relational, and psychological interactions affect self authorship development. This is true especially for African Americans. In a study of diverse college students from three public universities, they found that psychological contexts seem to be related to students' dissonance experiences and the process of self authorship. Specifically, they found the primary catalyst of self-authorship to be the students' previous notions of identity dissonance when asked, "Who am I?". However, for African Americans, the question was less about, "Who Am I?" in the intrapersonal dimension of self authorship but, "Who are we?" referencing the minority or ethnic group. The "Who are we?" question shows that previous notions of relational dissonance also lead to self-authorship development. This seemed to be more relevant for African Americans and other minority groups.