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Authoring Your Life
Who am I? What do I want in relationships? How do I know what to believe? How do I manage the stresses of living?
This is a guide to addressing life’s challenges and competing demands. It will help you to reflect on the problems and setbacks you encounter to discover your own voice, uncover your authentic sense of values, build your confidence, and find meaning in you life.
This is, however, far more than a self-help book; and it addresses multiple audiences.
Because everyone’s circumstances differ, and life unpredictable, this book does not offer simplistic solutions and steps to follow. Instead, Marcia Baxter Magolda immerses you in the stories of thirty-five adults whom she has followed and interviewed for over twenty years. With her guidance, and using the self-authorship framework she has developed, you will recognize in yourself many patterns and parallels from the protagonists’ stories of emotional and intellectual growth. By reflecting on these life stories, you will gain insights about your individual values and identity, and strengthen your sense of self-reliance to handle significant transitions and unexpected circumstances.
In addition to helping you identify the phases of your journey to self-authorship, Marcia Baxter Magolda offers reflective exercises and questions to help you uncover your strengths and identify the barriers that may be inhibiting you from building the internal, psychological compass that will serve as the foundation for your journey.
Offering advice on how to be “good company” for those who have set out on their journey to self-authorship, the book is also addressed to partners, family members, friends, teachers, mentors, and employers, so they can offer support to those that face these challenges.
Finally, for scholars of adult development, this book offers the latest articulation of the developing theory of self-authorship.
This is a guide to addressing life’s challenges and competing demands. It will help you to reflect on the problems and setbacks you encounter to discover your own voice, uncover your authentic sense of values, build your confidence, and find meaning in you life.
This is, however, far more than a self-help book; and it addresses multiple audiences.
Because everyone’s circumstances differ, and life unpredictable, this book does not offer simplistic solutions and steps to follow. Instead, Marcia Baxter Magolda immerses you in the stories of thirty-five adults whom she has followed and interviewed for over twenty years. With her guidance, and using the self-authorship framework she has developed, you will recognize in yourself many patterns and parallels from the protagonists’ stories of emotional and intellectual growth. By reflecting on these life stories, you will gain insights about your individual values and identity, and strengthen your sense of self-reliance to handle significant transitions and unexpected circumstances.
In addition to helping you identify the phases of your journey to self-authorship, Marcia Baxter Magolda offers reflective exercises and questions to help you uncover your strengths and identify the barriers that may be inhibiting you from building the internal, psychological compass that will serve as the foundation for your journey.
Offering advice on how to be “good company” for those who have set out on their journey to self-authorship, the book is also addressed to partners, family members, friends, teachers, mentors, and employers, so they can offer support to those that face these challenges.
Finally, for scholars of adult development, this book offers the latest articulation of the developing theory of self-authorship.
398 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
10 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 14, 2018
In “Authoring Your Life – Developing Your Internal Voice to Navigate Life’s Challenges”, the author Marcia Baxter Magolda (a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Student Learning and Development) puts forth the important message - the progress in human development of individuals takes place only when they attain the abilities to listen to their internal voices or senses. More specifically, the notion of listening to internal voices is differentiated from what would occur commonly as purely or more extensively relying on or responding to external stimuli at the expense of the internal ones. The result of neglecting these internal voices is a disintegrated state of mind that involves a tug of war between internal and external stimuli. On the other hand, when one develops the abilities to listen to one’s internal voices, he/she learns to control the matters that are within his/her capacities while accepting some others (sometimes the harsh reality) that are not within his/her control. That is individuals with higher capacities of listening to internal voices become more integrated personalities and resilient in the face of challenging circumstances. Interestingly, Professor Magolda has observed these results from her longitudinal research studies on self-authorship conducted over twenty years with subjects selected from diverse social backgrounds.
Professor Magolda’s research studies have revealed some interesting features of human development that happen essentially through the process of self-authorship highlighted in the book. Self-authorship, as implied, is a realisation the subject individual has to develop on his/her own. However, some life experiences -especially the painful ones- and support personnel (referred to in the text as partners) such as parents, spouses, friends, supervisors/employers, teachers, counsellors may assist or become catalysts in the process. Self-authorship begins, usually during early adulthood, when the subject individual experiences discrepancies between internal belief systems and external worlds, especially when the individual is faced with situations of crossroads. Individuals, who depended heavily on external voices/authority (of parents/teachers/elders etc.), begin to be more independent at the onset of the adulthood and thereby listening to their internal voices more. It could be an intriguing research question pursue to get to know how some individuals (possibly the ones who demonstrate the trait of mindfulness) are prone to develop a high value/belief system internally and encounter a conflicting imbalance between the internal and external worlds. If an individual progresses in the process of self-authorship, he/she would develop the ability to listen and believe in his/her internal voices increasingly firmly while at the same time developing an understanding that though some external realities cannot be controlled, the reactions to them by him/her can be regulated mainly by getting to know of multiple perspectives/contexts.
Interestingly, we can draw some parallels between the theory of self-authorship defined by Professor Magolda and some other human development frameworks presented by other philosophers/researchers in the past. For example, Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualisation highlights mainly external/environmental requirements such as fulfilling basic needs (food, shelter, clothes etc.), love and security and social acceptance etc. for an individual in his/her progress in human development to higher levels. Consequently, the two theories of self-authorship and self-actualisation complement each other giving two different perspectives of internal and external to the subject individual in the human developmental process. In Kazimierz Dabrowski’s human development framework of Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD), the disintegration process from a primary integration to a somewhat unstable state (state of psychoneurosis as Dabrowski referred to) towards a much more stable state of secondary integration has some similarities with the theory of self-authorship. In progress towards self-authorship, the subject individual first becomes shaken by observing the differences between the internal values/thinking and what is present externally in the real world especially when encountered with crossroad situations. In order to overcome this turbulent state of mind, the individual has to continue listening to internal voices more firmly so that he/she comes to a realisation of what can or cannot be controlled and/or what should/shouldn’t be accepted as realities of life.
One important insight highlighted in the book is that turning inward towards identifying one’s internal voices more while deemphasising on external stimuli (or ordinary socialising) does not mean that an individual in the process of self-authorship fails to develop healthy interpersonal relationships. In fact, as the studies showed, it was the opposite – through the development of a higher level of self-awareness, these individuals become more capable of understanding others more deeply thus enabling the enhancement of their interpersonal relationships. In other words, they may incline more towards introversion on a scale of extroversion-introversion while engaging and integrating with the self firmly along with a clearer understanding and acceptance of the differences between internal and external real worlds.
For educators, the single most important take away message from the book is the need to relate the content being introduced to a personal level so that learners can associate them to their individualised internal voices through a higher level of reflection. In other words, educators should endeavour to connect important concepts presented to as many real-life scenarios as possible so that a wider learner cohort would be able to make real personalised meanings for them. That is, the knowledge is not represented as something external to the learners, rather it is created and enhanced internally by the learner following the notion of the constructivist theory of learning. The essence of learning and development is an internal process of the learners although some external education systems and experiences may positively facilitate it. As Professor Magolda highlighted, learning and development is a process that needs essentially to be self-authored and directed mindfully by the subject individual on his/her own to meet his/her internal voices/value systems.
Professor Magolda’s research studies have revealed some interesting features of human development that happen essentially through the process of self-authorship highlighted in the book. Self-authorship, as implied, is a realisation the subject individual has to develop on his/her own. However, some life experiences -especially the painful ones- and support personnel (referred to in the text as partners) such as parents, spouses, friends, supervisors/employers, teachers, counsellors may assist or become catalysts in the process. Self-authorship begins, usually during early adulthood, when the subject individual experiences discrepancies between internal belief systems and external worlds, especially when the individual is faced with situations of crossroads. Individuals, who depended heavily on external voices/authority (of parents/teachers/elders etc.), begin to be more independent at the onset of the adulthood and thereby listening to their internal voices more. It could be an intriguing research question pursue to get to know how some individuals (possibly the ones who demonstrate the trait of mindfulness) are prone to develop a high value/belief system internally and encounter a conflicting imbalance between the internal and external worlds. If an individual progresses in the process of self-authorship, he/she would develop the ability to listen and believe in his/her internal voices increasingly firmly while at the same time developing an understanding that though some external realities cannot be controlled, the reactions to them by him/her can be regulated mainly by getting to know of multiple perspectives/contexts.
Interestingly, we can draw some parallels between the theory of self-authorship defined by Professor Magolda and some other human development frameworks presented by other philosophers/researchers in the past. For example, Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualisation highlights mainly external/environmental requirements such as fulfilling basic needs (food, shelter, clothes etc.), love and security and social acceptance etc. for an individual in his/her progress in human development to higher levels. Consequently, the two theories of self-authorship and self-actualisation complement each other giving two different perspectives of internal and external to the subject individual in the human developmental process. In Kazimierz Dabrowski’s human development framework of Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD), the disintegration process from a primary integration to a somewhat unstable state (state of psychoneurosis as Dabrowski referred to) towards a much more stable state of secondary integration has some similarities with the theory of self-authorship. In progress towards self-authorship, the subject individual first becomes shaken by observing the differences between the internal values/thinking and what is present externally in the real world especially when encountered with crossroad situations. In order to overcome this turbulent state of mind, the individual has to continue listening to internal voices more firmly so that he/she comes to a realisation of what can or cannot be controlled and/or what should/shouldn’t be accepted as realities of life.
One important insight highlighted in the book is that turning inward towards identifying one’s internal voices more while deemphasising on external stimuli (or ordinary socialising) does not mean that an individual in the process of self-authorship fails to develop healthy interpersonal relationships. In fact, as the studies showed, it was the opposite – through the development of a higher level of self-awareness, these individuals become more capable of understanding others more deeply thus enabling the enhancement of their interpersonal relationships. In other words, they may incline more towards introversion on a scale of extroversion-introversion while engaging and integrating with the self firmly along with a clearer understanding and acceptance of the differences between internal and external real worlds.
For educators, the single most important take away message from the book is the need to relate the content being introduced to a personal level so that learners can associate them to their individualised internal voices through a higher level of reflection. In other words, educators should endeavour to connect important concepts presented to as many real-life scenarios as possible so that a wider learner cohort would be able to make real personalised meanings for them. That is, the knowledge is not represented as something external to the learners, rather it is created and enhanced internally by the learner following the notion of the constructivist theory of learning. The essence of learning and development is an internal process of the learners although some external education systems and experiences may positively facilitate it. As Professor Magolda highlighted, learning and development is a process that needs essentially to be self-authored and directed mindfully by the subject individual on his/her own to meet his/her internal voices/value systems.
November 6, 2017
Excellent book about the challenges of creating your own voice throughout your lifetime. There were some limitations as far as her original choices for interviews, but she more than made up for that at the end of the book when she included experiences by a diverse group of people.
April 10, 2011
This book was an interesting read through Baxter Magolda's longitudinal study of adulthood, as she followed a group of graduating college students through the 20 years afterward. It was fascinating to read the individual paths that all more or less followed the same patterns of progress, challenge, reversion, then on to more progress.
I found the chapter on being a good partner to students at various stages to be interesting and helpful, and I'm going to re-read it again to develop some practical applications of those suggestions.
I'm captivated by the concept of self-authorship and I can see many different applications of the idea within higher education, particularly as it relates to career and graduate school decision-making. I'm inspired to do more research on this topic and further my reading this summer.
I found the chapter on being a good partner to students at various stages to be interesting and helpful, and I'm going to re-read it again to develop some practical applications of those suggestions.
I'm captivated by the concept of self-authorship and I can see many different applications of the idea within higher education, particularly as it relates to career and graduate school decision-making. I'm inspired to do more research on this topic and further my reading this summer.
December 9, 2012
Great concept, but the book became SUPER repetitive. Honestly didn't read all of it because it was mostly just case studies of various people and how they made decisions in their lives basked on their internal voices. Love the idea of self authorship, though!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews