Self-authorship is a stage of adult development where the individual has extended beyond the need to be socialized among their community and has developed their own identity, ideologies, and beliefs which they hold fast to. 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 has three primary parts, cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal dimensions. It also involves how individual's turn experiences into growth opportunities.
Guide 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. It is no longer authored by them, it authors them and thereby achieves a personal authority." Self-authorship is only a single phase of development within the lifelong process of self-evolution. Instead of depending on external values, beliefs, and interpersonal loyalties, self-authorship relies on internal generation and coordination of one's beliefs, values and internal loyalties. This phase can often be seen at critical turning points in an individual's life, such as during education for a professional career. Self-authorship spans over three dimensions: cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. It is based on theory involving adult learning and gaining of knowledge with the product of self-authorship including learning and growth. The concept of the "object" and the concept of the "self" make up self-authorship. One is not born with self-authorship. There are steps to attain self-authorship which include following external formulas, then crossroads and eventually obtaining self-authorship. There are elements of self-authorship that include trusting the internal voice, building an internal foundation and securing internal commitments. Not every experience allows us to work towards self-authorship. Developmentally effective experiences are what help guide us to self-authorship. These experiences allow for others to look at the world around them and search deep within themselves in order to develop their own opinions. It requires a heightened sense of self awareness as well as humility if you want to turn experiences into developmental ones. It does not matter if the experiences are positive or negative, developmental experiences are ones that change and that can be either. These influences and internal searching allows the individual to understand what their opinions are, why they have those opinions and how that opinion was formulated. In addition, these experiences allow for the person to rely on one's internal beliefs in order to make decisions. Cultural factors play a role in the development of self-authorship. While identity dissonance is a catalyst in the development of self-authorship, for African Americans, relational dissonance is also involved. The addition of racial dissonance can create additional difficulties in the self-authorship process, as has been seen among Latino college students in the United States. Relational dissonance adds the additional question of "Who are we?" of one's identifying group to the question "Who am I?" asked as the result of identity dissonance. Multiple cultural factors including race, gender, and sexuality can all add additional complexity to developing self-authorship.
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