ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the most relevant research evidence and the more important lacunae of our knowledge about the connection between participation and personal development. Participation, as a concept and as a practice, has been a long and hotly contested notion. The function of participation in its most general sense, then, is to realign decisions and their outcome to the interests and needs of those who are affected. A psychological theory of participation, however, will have to take into account the interaction of individual prerequisites and the situational factors impacting on the consequences of participation. Personal well-being, individual action potential, and meaningfulness of human existence are necessarily linked to participation in designing social systems. Participation, as a form of self-generated goal-oriented effective action upon one's social and physical environment, may thus be conceived of as a crucial link to personal growth and self-realization.
