agentic

Agentic is an adjective describing something related to agency—the capacity to act with intention and to influence events. It characterizes individuals or behaviors oriented toward self-directed action, autonomy, and mastery, as opposed to passivity or dependence. The term is commonly used in psychology and the social sciences to denote an orientation toward personal control and initiative. In linguistics, agentic is sometimes contrasted with agentive, the latter being a grammatical term for the voice that marks the agent of an action; agentic, in contrast, emphasizes psychological or behavioral aspects.

In psychology, agentic refers to a sense of personal efficacy and control, including the ability to set goals, plan, and regulate one’s actions to achieve outcomes. It is often discussed in relation to self-efficacy, autonomy, and deliberate goal pursuit, and is sometimes juxtaposed with communal or relational orientations. The concept features prominently in theories of human agency, including Bandura’s social cognitive framework, which emphasizes people’s capacity to act intentionally and shape their circumstances.

In social and gender studies, agentic traits are linked with independence, assertiveness, and achievement orientation, and are frequently contrasted with communal traits such as warmth and cooperativeness. These trait clusters are used to analyze personality, role expectations, and socialization processes.

In Milgram’s work, the term agentic state describes a mental shift in which individuals defer responsibility to an authority, acting as instruments of others’ commands. This usage highlights a situational aspect of agency rather than a stable trait.

See also: agency, autonomy, self-efficacy, Bandura, Milgram.