Agency – A Key to Well-Being and Flourishing – Practical Steps to Agency — ASN Events
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  3. Agency – A Key to Well-Being and Flourishing – Practical Steps to Agency

Agency – A Key to Well-Being and Flourishing – Practical Steps to Agency (#227)

Philip Streit 1
  1. Institute of Positive Psychology and Mental Coaching, Graz, STYRIA, Austria

According to Martin Seligman (2020), agency is a mental state that causes immediate action - “I can make a positive difference in the world” – and has 3 components: Efficiency, Optimism, and Imagination.”

In Snyder’s Theory of Hope (1989) agency is the motivational part of hope with the components Goal-Oriented Energy (Snyder 1989, Baumeister et al., 2016), Perceived Ability to Navigate to Goals (Bandura, 1997, Seligman, 2020) and Reflection of Obstacles and Developing Multiple Plans (Oettingen, 2012).

In this applied session, Dr. Streit describes shortly the scientific background, why Agency is a key element of Well-being and Flourishing (Seligman 2020, 2011). He also discusses factors that may influence Agency like genetics, socio-cultural conditions, environmental variables, mind and free will, also known as Bio-Psycho-Social Unity (Baumeister, 2012, Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2011, Seligman, 2020).

After a short introduction of the theoretical background the question is raised which is relevant for every Positive Psychology practitioner: How can Agency be developed and cultivated in everyday life to create a positive future?

Dr. Streit provides therefore ten practical interventions and offers short exercises to experience ways to Agency.

The methods of collecting data about the effectivity of these exercises are qualitative interviews and quantitative control of the progress of PERMA, Flourishing and Hope by using thestandardized questionnaires PERMA Profiler (, Wammerl et al., 2019) the Flourishing Scale (Keyes, 2002), The Adult Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991), Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1997) PANAS (Breyer & Bluemke, 2016) BDI (Hautzinger et al., 2006).

The results as far as show that children, adolescents, and adults, who develop agency perform much more agile, positive, self-determined and future orientated. More empirical data will be presented at the congress.

Outcome of this applied session is to share tools to develop Agency and to share evidence-based practical experiences to a broad audience of practitioners of Positive Psychology.

Also possible: Podium or ignite presentation.

  1. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W H Freeman/Times Books/ Henry Holt & Co.
  2. Baumeister, R. F., & Tierney J. (2012). Willpower : rediscovering the greatest human strength. Penguin.
  3. Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Oettingen, G. (2016). Pragmatic Prospection: How and Why People Think about the Future. Review of General Psychology, 20(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000060
  4. Breyer, B., & Bluemke, M. (2016). Deutsche Version der Positive and Negative Affect Schedule PANAS (GESIS Panel). Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen (ZIS). https://doi.org/10.6102/zis242
  5. Dar-Nimrod, I., & Heine, S. J. (2011). Genetic essentialism: On the deceptive determinism of DNA. Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 800–818. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021860
  6. Hautzinger, M., Keller, F., & Kühner, C. (2006). Beck Depressions-Inventar (BDI-II). Revision. Frankfurt/Main: Harcourt Test Services.
  7. Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090197
  8. Oettingen, G. (2012). Future thought and behavior change. European Review of Social Psychology. 23. 1-63. 10.1080/10463283.2011.643698.
  9. Seligman , M. E. P. (2012). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. Atria.
  10. Seligman, M. E. P. (2020). Agency in Greco-Roman philosophy. The Journal of Positive Psychology. 16. 1-10. 10.1080/17439760.2020.1832250.
  11. Snyder, C. R. (1989). Reality negotiation: From excuses to hope and beyond. Journal of social and clinical psychology, 8(2), 130.
  12. Snyder, C. R., Hoza, B., Pelham, W. E., Rapoff, M., Ware, L., Danovsky, M., ... & Stahl, K. J. , "The development and validation of the Children’s Hope Scale," Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 22, 3, 1997, pp. 399–421.
  13. Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., et al. 1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 570-585.
  14. Wammerl, M., Jaunig, J., Mairunteregger, T. et al. The German Version of the PERMA-Profiler: Evidence for Construct and Convergent Validity of the PERMA Theory of Well-Being in German Speaking Countries. J well-being assess 3, 75–96 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-019-00021-0
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Coaching, Motivation, Self-Care
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