Understanding how your choices aren’t your own

This paper explores the concept of agency as influenced by individual perceptions and cultural influences and investigates its implications for self and society. Agency, an individual's perceived ability to intentionally influence their own actions and outcomes, is intricately linked to cultural context, which includes societal norms, practices, beliefs, and values. We examine how agency manifests differently across cultures that value independence versus interdependence. We examine research that uses attribution styles, the way people assign the cause of an outcome, and in this research, they use samples from ‘western cultures’ (generally North America and Western Europe) and compare them to eastern cultures (typically China or Japan). There is a strong and consistent correlation that western countries have an independent attribution (I personally achieved this) while eastern countries had an interdependent attribution (my group achieved this). We also explore some applications to improve education using tools like self-regulated learning, where the student has more personal control over their education which leads to significant improvement in their academic achievement. A critical examination of current methodologies highlights issues with samples from White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD). This type of bias limits generalizability such that it cannot claim the same is true for all people. Suggested solutions include further emphasis on cross-cultural research, better consideration of cultural nuances, and a more holistic understanding of agency. Frameworks that can aggregate data from all parts of the world with equivalence would allow for the most generalizability.