Important theorists such as Robert Kegan and Marcia Baxter Magolda have contributed extensively to our understanding of self-authorship and its public recognition.
Self-authorship is defined by Robert Kegan as an "ideology, an internal personal identity, that can coordinate, integrate, act upon, or invent values, beliefs, convictions, generalizations, ideals, abstractions, interpersonal loyalties, and intrapersonal states.
In addition, these experiences allow for the person to rely on one's internal beliefs in order to make decisions.
[5] Multiple cultural factors including race, gender, and sexuality can all add additional complexity to developing self-authorship.
Kegan identified that Piaget’s research did not include the emotion of an individual's personal development.
Ability to understand how they process emotion and become committed to the people and guiding beliefs that make up their community.
As one continues to distance themselves from depending on external authorities for beliefs, identities and social relationships, self authorship begins to evolve.
The conflict people in this stage are experiencing is between the values they develop that are integral to the sense of self and the demands they experience in their roles and relationships with others.
One's responsibility lies in interpreting experiences based trusting one's internal voices, not on other's values and ideas.
[12] The program was inspired in part by the work of JW Pennebaker who performed research that tested the effects of writing and the benefits of coming to conclusions and understanding regarding past experiences.
[14][15][16] In a 2009 study entitled "Personality and Language Use In Self-Narratives", Jacob B. Hirsh and Jordan B. Peterson facilitated and observed the self-authoring of undergraduate students as they participated actively in "past-authoring" (writing about significantly influential periods and events from one's past) and "future-authoring" (writing about one's goals, the environment and steps required to achieve them, and possible challenges).
[18] Cognitive self-authorship focuses on the idea that the individual is responsible for their thoughts and beliefs rather than being influenced by external sources.
[2] Although many may think the products of continuous changes in self-authorship are an accumulation of knowledge, skills and information, this is not the case.
[2] Change in this relationship demonstrates the positive developments that occur as an individual learns to take more responsibility.
[20] Although this transformation is for the improvement of an individual as new capacities are discovered, it is normal to feel a sense of being lost and anxious as they transition.
[11] One does this by combining one's identity, relationships, beliefs and values into a set of internal commitments from which to act upon.
Securing Internal Commitments Baxter Magolda described this shift as a "crossing over",[11] where the individuals core beliefs become a "personal authority",[11] which they act upon.
[22] According to Jane Pizzolato et al. 2012: cultural, relational, and psychological interactions affect self-authorship development.
Specifically, they found the primary catalyst of self-authorship to be the students' previous notions of identity dissonance when asked, "Who am I?".
question shows that previous notions of relational dissonance also lead to self-authorship development.
[23] According to Vasti Torres and Ebelia Hernandez 2007: Latino college students face challenges to self-authorship as they recognize and adapt to perceived racism.
When looking at the development of self-authorship in gay Latino college students, Robert Orozco and Lara Perez-Felkner 2018 conceptualized a framework of thought they refer to as "conociéndose y escribiédose¨, which explains the difficulties posed by having to self-author in the face of multiple conflicts in identity.
[24] This framework was based on Gloria Anzaldúa's perception of "conocimiento", or the journey required to learn one's identity in a shifting world.
[8] Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, in their book An Everyone Culture, explore the concept of a "Self-Authoring mind."
They describe this stage of development as an individual's capacity to "step back enough from the social environment to generate an internal seat of judgment, or personal authority, that evaluates and makes choices about external expectations" (Kegan and Lahey, p. 63).
This means that individuals with a Self-Authoring mind are able to detach from their social context, forming personal values and making decisions based on their own beliefs.
Kegan and Lahey further explain, "Our self coheres by its alignment with its own belief system, ideology, or personal code; by its ability to self-direct, take stands, set limits, and create and regulate its boundaries on behalf of its own voice" (Kegan and Lahey, p. 63).
This extends the previous idea by emphasizing the importance of personal boundaries and beliefs, which help define and strengthen the Self-Authoring mind within the stages of adult development.