id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
en-wikipedia-org-5421		Agency (sociology) - Wikipedia			.html	text/html	2091	232	58	In social science, agency is defined as the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. By contrast, structure are those factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc.) that determine or limit an agent and their decisions.[1] The influences from structure and agency are debated—it is unclear to what extent a person's actions are constrained by social systems. These ideas were the point of departure for concerns regarding non-rational, norm-oriented action in classical sociological theory contrasting with the views on the rational instrumental action.[2] Social psychologist Daniel Wegner discusses how an "illusion of control" may cause people to take credit for events that they did not cause.[5] These false judgments of agency occur especially under stress, or when the results of the event were ones that the individual desired (also see self-serving biases). Children's sense of agency[edit] Collective agency occurs when people act together, such as a social movement. Agency in conversation[edit]	./cache/en-wikipedia-org-5421.html	./txt/en-wikipedia-org-5421.txt