• ARTICLES, Special Section, XVIIth International Congress on PCP Australia July 2007

Ontological acceleration and human agency.

McWilliams, S. A.

Keywords:
co-evolution, human agency, personal construct psychology, social cognitive theory

Abstract:
In ‘Ontological Acceleration,’ Kelly described human evolution as a continuing process that remains actively in transition and suggested that we view human behavior itself as an example of this evolutionary process. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) presents an intriguingly parallel view emphasizing human agency as a central factor in a coevolutionary process. Both Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) and SCT emphasize the proactive role of humans in establishing views of the future, anticipating and assessing outcomes, and managing and guiding goal-directed actions. This paper describes some of these parallels and proposes ways that these approaches might mutually inform and elaborate each other in these convivial views.