Self-Determination and Causal Agency Theory: Integrating Research Into Practice

This book introduces Casual Agency Theory as a framework for defining self-determination and describing its development and essential characteristics. It synthesizes the research on promoting and enhancing self-determination and explores implications for practice in a disability context across the life course. The book also highlights future directions for theory, research, and practice in areas of positive psychology and disability.

Key areas of coverage include:

Self-Determination and Causal Agency Theory is an essential resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other professionals in the fields of developmental and positive psychology, educational policy and practice, special education, social work, occupational, speech, and language therapy, public health, and healthcare policy.

Karrie A. Shogren, Ph.D., is Director of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities (a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities), Senior Scientist at the Schiefelbusch Life Span Institute, and Professor in the Department of Special Education all at the University of Kansas. Dr. Shogren’s research focuses on assessment and intervention in self-determination and supported decision making for people with disabilities. She has led multiple grant-funded projects, including assessment validation and efficacy trials of self-determination interventions in school and community contexts. Dr. Shogren has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, is the author or co-author of 10 books, and is the lead author of the Self-Determination Inventory (www.self-determination.org), a recently validated assessment of self-determination. She has received grant funding from several sources, including the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). Dr. Shogren is co-Editor of Remedial and Special Education.

Sheida K. Raley, Ph.D., is an Assistant Research Professor at the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities and Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education. Dr. Raley’s research focuses on assessment and intervention related to self-determination for all students, including students with extensive support needs learning in inclusive contexts. The ultimate goal of her research is to understand how to enable all students, including students with and without disabilities, to build abilities and skills associated with self-determination. She has a particular interest in identifying instructional strategies and supports for general and special educators to use in inclusive classrooms. Dr. Raley earned her doctoral degree in Special Education from the University of Kansas and is a former public school teacher for elementary and middle school students with extensive support needs.