Last updated on September 27th, 2026 at 09:52 pm
Two workers lose their jobs in the same week: one updates her resume that night, while the other decides nothing he does will make a difference. Psychologists would say they differ in one crucial psychological quality: their sense of agency.
In psychology, agency is the capacity to act intentionally and influence your own life, rather than simply being pushed around by circumstances.
It sits behind goal pursuit, resilience after setbacks, and even the basic feeling that your movements belong to you.
The sections below cover Albert Bandura’s theory of human agency, the sense of agency studied by neuroscientists, and how agency relates to self-efficacy and locus of control.
They also look at agency in mental health, behavior change, and culture, including a surprising revision of the famous learned helplessness theory.
For practical steps, the companion article on building personal agency goes further.
Table of Contents
What Is Agency in Psychology?
Psychologist Albert Bandura saw the ability to steer the course and quality of your own life as central to what makes us human.
In his social cognitive theory, agency means acting on purpose: forming intentions, anticipating outcomes, regulating your behavior, and reflecting on how well it is working.
Bandura also stressed that agency operates within social systems, so people are both producers and products of the world around them.
A student choosing a course, a worker asking for a raise, and a patient following a treatment plan are all exercising agency.
Bandura’s Four Features of Human Agency
Bandura described four functions through which people exercise agency, each building on the last.
| Feature | What It Means | Everyday Example |
|---|---|---|
| Intentionality | Forming plans and strategies to reach an aim | Deciding to save for a car and choosing a monthly amount |
| Forethought | Setting goals and anticipating likely outcomes | Imagining how debt-free living will feel to stay motivated |
| Self-reactiveness | Regulating and adjusting your own behavior along the way | Skipping an impulse purchase that would derail the plan |
| Self-reflectiveness | Examining your thoughts, actions, and effectiveness | Reviewing the budget monthly and changing what is not working |
The third feature overlaps closely with the self-regulation process, which is how intentions survive everyday temptations.
Three Modes of Agency
Bandura distinguished three ways people exercise agency: directly, through others, and together.
- Personal agency: acting directly on what you can control, such as studying for an exam or changing a habit.
- Proxy agency: influencing people with the knowledge or resources to act for you, such as hiring a lawyer or asking a doctor for a referral.
- Collective agency: pooling effort with others to change something no one could change alone, such as a community fixing its road.
Healthy agency uses all three, since trying to control everything personally is exhausting and unrealistic.
The Sense of Agency
Neuroscientists use a related term, the sense of agency, for the moment-to-moment feeling that you are the author of your own actions.
When you flip a light switch and the room brightens, your brain links the intention, the movement, and the result, and you feel you caused it.
Researchers such as Patrick Haggard found that people perceive the time between a deliberate action and its effect as shorter than it really is, an effect called intentional binding.
This feeling can be disrupted in some conditions, such as schizophrenia, where people may feel their thoughts or movements are controlled by an outside force.
Agency, Self-Efficacy, and Locus of Control
Three related ideas are easy to confuse, so the table below separates them.
| Concept | Core Question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Agency | Am I acting on purpose to influence my life? | Choosing to retrain for a new career |
| Self-efficacy | Do I believe I can succeed at this task? | Feeling confident you can pass the course |
| Locus of control | Do I think outcomes depend on me or on outside forces? | Believing effort, not luck, decides exam results |
Self-efficacy, Bandura’s other major idea, fuels agency, since people rarely try what they believe they cannot do, a link explained further in self-efficacy and confidence.
Locus of control, introduced by Julian Rotter, describes a general belief about where outcomes come from rather than action itself.
Agency and Mental Health
A strong sense of agency is linked with resilience, better coping, and hope, while a weak one tends to accompany depression and anxiety.
The best-known example comes from Martin Seligman and Steven Maier’s research on learned helplessness, which began with animals that stopped trying to escape after repeated uncontrollable shocks.
Fifty years later, the same researchers revised their theory: passivity in the face of prolonged adversity appears to be the brain’s default response, not something learned.
What gets learned, they argued, is control itself, as the brain’s prefrontal cortex detects that actions matter and switches off the passive response.
That revision carries a hopeful message, because it suggests agency can be built through experiences of successful control.
If feelings of powerlessness persist or come with depression, a licensed mental health professional can help.
How Agency Influences Behavior Change
Changing a habit, from smoking to overspending, requires believing that your actions can make a difference and then acting on that belief repeatedly.
Many effective therapies and health programs work partly by building agency, setting small, achievable tasks so people collect evidence that change is possible.
Each small success strengthens the next attempt, which is why a person who walks for ten minutes today may be more likely to walk for twenty next week.
How Culture Influences Agency
Psychologists Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama described two broad models of agency that vary across cultures.
In more individualistic settings, agency tends to be disjoint, meaning actions are seen as coming from a person’s own preferences and choices.
In more collectivist settings, agency tends to be conjoint, meaning actions are guided by relationships, duties, and the expectations of family and community.
A young Nigerian choosing a career in consultation with parents is still exercising agency, just in a conjoint form, as collectivist ways of thinking help explain.
In my observation, people who move between cultures tend to hold both forms, making some choices alone and others together with family.
Can You Strengthen Your Sense of Agency?
Agency grows through experience, especially small wins that prove your actions matter, clear goals, and honest reflection on what works.
Supportive relationships help too, since people are more willing to act when they feel backed rather than judged.
Practical steps, along with the risks of taking agency too far, are covered in the companion article on personal agency linked above.
Building agency is also a core part of personal development and self-direction.
Conclusion
The worker who updated her resume the night she lost her job was not luckier than her colleague; she simply believed her actions could change what came next.
In psychology, agency is the capacity to act intentionally and influence your life, built on intentionality, forethought, self-regulation, and self-reflection.
It works personally, through others, and collectively, differs across cultures, and, as the revised learned helplessness research suggests, can be learned through experiences of control.
This week, pick one small situation you have been passive about and take a single deliberate action.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is agency in psychology?
Agency in psychology is the capacity to act intentionally and influence your own life, which Albert Bandura described through four features: intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness.
What is the difference between agency and self-efficacy?
Agency is the capacity to act on purpose and influence your life, while self-efficacy is your belief that you can succeed at a specific task, which fuels agency.
What is the sense of agency?
The sense of agency is the feeling that you are the author of your own actions, like knowing you turned on the light by flipping the wall switch.
Is learned helplessness really learned?
Maier and Seligman’s 2016 revision suggests passivity after prolonged adversity is the brain’s default, while what gets learned is control, the discovery that your own actions actually matter.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and reflective purposes only and does not constitute mental health, psychological, or therapeutic advice. The author is not a licensed therapist or psychologist. Where content is based on personal observation or experience, this is stated clearly in the article. If you are struggling with your mental health, please consult a qualified mental health professional.
Pious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is lived. He is the founder of The Conducts of Life, a site built on the belief that how you behave, not what you achieve, defines who you are. His writing draws from decades of observation, lived experience, and serious thinking about human nature, ethics, and self-development. He writes to be useful, not popular.