When we ask ourselves what autonomy is, a person who is independent, who doesn't need to wait for the help of others to do what has to be done, comes to mind, and this is very good. Autonomy is essential for both your professional and personal life.

In this article we will talk a little bit about what is autonomy and what involvement she has in your life.

Concept and examples

O concept of autonomy This is why autonomy is associated with independence, freedom, and sovereignty.

Examples:

• I have worked all my life to achieve Catalan autonomy;
• We must ensure that women have autonomy and can choose how, when, and where they work without pressure from their husbands or families;
• This electric car has a range of 40 kilometers.

The idea of autonomy in relation to the status enjoyed by administrative entities within a federal or national state is often used. These regions have their own organs of self-government, even when they are part of a larger entity.

Autonomous person: in psychology

In the field of psychology and philosophy, autonomy refers to a person's ability to act according to his or her desires or beliefs, without obeying outside influences or pressures.

If a person needs to consult his partner before using some common money or meeting his friends, he lacks autonomy.

Contributions from psychology

Psychology has contributed a lot in relation to moral judgment. Among all of them, especially Jean Piaget's, who considered that throughout the child's education there are two defined phases, precisely, the heteronomic and autonomic phases of morality:

• Autonomous phase: it lasts from the first socialization until about the age of eight, where the rules imposed for every aspect of life are unquestionable, and justice is identified with the most severe sanction.
• Heteronomous phase: from age nine to 12, the child internalizes the rules, but modifies them with everyone's consent: the sense of justice becomes equitable treatment.

What it means to have autonomy

It is not easy to move around the world with autonomy, because we must always submit ourselves to a series of external decisions, directly or indirectly.

No matter how hard we try to go our own way, unless we completely abandon civilization we will be submerged in the structure established by a government, the rules of coexistence of the neighborhood, and the opinions of our environment.

It is important, therefore, to find a balance where such external influence does not prevent us from pursuing our goals.

Meaning of autonomy: in another respect

In Spain, the autonomous communities are called autonomias. These are territorial entities that, although they are part of the order established by the Constitution of Spain, have administrative, executive and legislative autonomy.

Autonomy, on the other hand, is the time a machine can remain in operation without recharging, or the distance a vehicle can travel without the need for refueling.

Also, nowadays, given the success of portable devices, it is very common to use the term to talk about how long they can remain active with a one hundred percent charged battery.

Electronics and the autonomy

Cell phones, tablets, and video game consoles fall into this group, and their autonomy is measured in hours.

However, it is very curious to accept that state-of-the-art devices have considerably less autonomy than those we used several decades ago.

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Examples:

While Nintendo's first handheld console, the Game Boy offered about 16 hours of battery life and one of its later versions had almost 36 hours.

In other words, the Nintendo Switch, released almost thirty years later, has an average length of 3.5 hours.

Autonomy in companies

Although there are accessories that can extend the autonomy of any of these devices, they are not always very comfortable to use.

Therefore, the current trend of companies making products that cannot be opened by users results in the battery not being able to be changed, so the only solution is to buy one that connects via the USB port.

Influence of an autonomy in electronics

This is not ideal, as these external batteries increase the dimensions of the device considerably and do not always have a strap mechanism to fit it.

However, since there are no affordable alternatives for most users, they enjoy a peculiar popularity.

Autonomy in relation to objects

As for concepts related to autonomy, we can also speak of in relation to certain objects, such as, for example, the autonomy of a vehicle.

In other words, this concept indicates the maximum distance a vehicle can travel without the need for refueling. So, for example, a car normally has a range of 600 kilometers, which can vary depending on the model.

Just as we can talk about the autonomy of a vehicle, we can also talk about other objects. The best example is electronic devices that use a battery or other power mechanism.

Synonyms and antonyms for autonomy

Synonyms are:

• sovereignty;
• independence;
• agency;
• freedom;
• self-government;
• self-management;
• power.

Antonyms are:

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• dependency;
• subordination.

External conditioning factors

To make a judgment that objectively divides autonomous from heteronomous behavior would involve leaving a large number of assumptions in place.

Throughout history, there have been numerous factors that have conditioned people's way of thinking, feeling, and acting, among which religion stands out.

For Auguste Comte, society was the issuer of moral mandates; for Karl Marx, the ruling capitalist class, and for Friedrich Nietzsche, the very subject that obeys, approaching the theory of autonomy.

10 Examples of autonomous behaviors

To illustrate, some clear examples of behaviors that can be classified as autonomous are listed below:

• dress as you like, beyond fashion or trends;
• decide to break up with a partner, even though your parents ask you to continue;
• consume a substance that is harmful to the body, even if everyone tells you not to;
• decides individual policy preferences;
• Listen to one kind of music or another;
• choose a career to study or change your field of study;
• respect the traditions of the creed to which one belongs, in an unfavorable context;
• Go against the grain if a child perceives that others are doing something wrong;
• start practicing a sport, in an environment where you don't know any partners;
• stop smoking, in a context where everyone smokes.

Autonomy and heteronomy

Autonomy and heteronomy are concepts associated with human action, in that people's behavior can be realized as a result of decisions made on their own.

In this way, external things can also directly influence a person's autonomy, especially in decision making.

In fact, the actual performance of the action is always private and individual, but it can happen that the person is forced or simply motivated to do it for a reason other than himself.

Concluding Remarks

As we have seen in this article, autonomy directly influences the individual's actions, from the way he speaks, to solving his problems, to asking for help to other people, among many other things. In a certain way it ends up being part of our daily life.

Did you like the article we made especially for you about what is autonomy? We invite you to enroll in our online course on clinical psychoanalysis, where you will find a lot of extra content to enhance your knowledge.