The unfolding of individual interests is reconstructed as part of a person's everyday experience in dealing with multiple goals. This is exemplified by referring to how adolescents cope with developmental tasks while striving for their ideal selves. Exploratory interaction with objects of potential interest is regarded as a central element that…

Individuals direct their own development by setting developmental goals and striving for goal attainment. Human development includes reductions in discrepancies between desired and actual states, as is the case in goal attainment and reduction of aspirations, as well as increases of discrepancies, for example, when individuals increase their…

To examine (a) how young adults' personal goals change as they progress from emerging to young adulthood in their university studies and immediately after and (b) the extent to which such changes are associated with the normative transitions and the life events they experience and their age, 297 university students completed the revised Personal…

Because they are not guided by an overall goal based on scientific theory, the six national education goals are fragmentary, contradictory, and insufficiently concerned about developing student autonomy--education's true aim. Teachers can help children develop autonomy by encouraging them to make decisions and enforce their own rules, fostering…