ABSTRACT
Autonomy in this chapter is viewed within the developmental and domain-specific framework of social-cognitive domain theory. The focus here is on autonomy in terms of individuals’ desires to regulate personal issues, or matters pertaining to privacy and individual preferences; these are seen as contributing to individuals’ well-being and flourishing by facilitating a sense of agency, individuality, and uniqueness, as well as providing avenues for self-expression. Evidence demonstrating that children and adolescents in different cultures make claims to personal issues is reviewed, and normative trends and contextual variations in the social-cognitive components of autonomy (e.g., beliefs about parental authority legitimacy) are discussed. Processes that facilitate or undermine the development of adolescents’ regulation of personal issues are considered, with a particular focus on adolescent–parent conflict and adolescents’ information management. Finally, behavioral dimensions of autonomy are discussed. The chapter ends with a brief comparison of the present view and the volitional view of autonomy.
