Human Agency in the Tensional Space of Existence

Abstract

This article presents lived tensions as a significant aspect of human agency and suggests what this concept can contribute to the formulation of rich understandings of psychological phenomena. In this argument, the notion of lived tensions refers to the competing demands, contradictions, oppositions, strains, resistances, and pulls that are ubiquitously encountered as part of meaningful, agential involvement in the world. An indication of how lived tensions can be explored in psychological inquiry is provided in an example qualitative study that foregrounds tensions in different ways. Implications for future research that aims to study agential human phenomena in terms of lived tensions, or that seeks to study the nature of lived tensions per se, are offered.