The word ‘agency’ is in mariner’s vocabulary. He uses its meaning to identify his own behaviors. In this post he will relate to his own examples and his endeavor to slow the decline in his ‘agency’.

No where no time and in no way will the reader consider this post approved and authoritative medical advice. The only cogent definitions are cited below in two paragraphs. The rest is all mariner.

֎ In psychology, agency is a person’s ability to initiate and control their actions, and the feeling they have of being in charge of their actions. The topic of agency can be divided into two topical domains. The first half of the topic of agency deals with the behavioral sense, or outward expressive evidence thereof. The other half of the topic of agency deals with the arguments of determinism.

֎ In behavioral psychology, agents are goal-directed entities that can monitor their environment to select and perform efficient means-end actions that are available in a given situation to achieve an intended goal. Behavioral agency, therefore, implies the ability to perceive and change the environment of the agent. Crucially, it also entails intentionality to represent the goal state in the future, equinoctial variability to be able to achieve the intended goal state with different actions in different contexts, and rationality of actions in relation to their goal to produce the most efficient action available.

Okay? Here’s a common example of a person’s inability to initiate and control their actions, and the feeling they have of being in charge of their actions:

Mariner wakes up in the morning, grooms and dresses early because his best friend stayed overnight yesterday and stayed in the downstairs bedroom. When he gets downstairs, his wife says, “No – Sam won’t be here until Thursday”. Mariner initiated okay but had no control of his reality. A classic example of the first  ֎paragraph

Behavioral agency is very common in folks in the form of entertaining incidents, perhaps remotely unlocking the garage door by habit and immediately realizing the car is in the auto repair shop. As one grows older these entertaining experiences become frequent enough to be a nuisance.

An experience mariner can share is when he tries to heat his cup of coffee in the refrigerator. Mariner makes a pot every morning but the refrigerator and the microwave are right next to each other. The refrigerator is chosen because most of the preparation involves the refrigerator. This is a lapse in behavioral agency.

Determinism is in italics because it may not be the easiest word to apply to agency. It’s intention is to suggest that much of the world’s reality forces us to behave in subconscious, predetermined ways. Essentially, this means evolution has placed in a person’s genome certain behaviors that will dominate otherwise conscious decisions. A simple example is personality; different individuals will respond to reality with predetermined behavior. Agency is more related to the accuracy of conscious thought and the accuracy of those thoughts as reflected in reality.

A final analogy: Agency is all about how accurately the reader drives their car. Is there a problem acknowledging stop signs? The reader left for Chicago but forgot to gas the car. The reader’s peripheral vision isn’t what it used to be; how many sharp stops are made with other cars, people and very deep holes in the road. Did you leave the baby at home?

Unfortunately, as we age, agency begins to fail in major ways, leaving us with dementia in a dozen different ways, or sometimes diseases like Parkinson’s or speech defects, or hearing difficulties. This end game is where determinism becomes a cause.

To keep the brain associated with reality, mariner makes a list of chores he must do every day without fail, things like empty the dishwasher, take out the trash, get the mail and stay involved in gardening. He attends physical therapy. He plays puzzles like crosswords and other one-person games and even writes short essays for his blog. He even makes his own coffee!

Ancient Mariner

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