ABSTRACT
In this chapter we examine the relationship between opportunities, engagement, and adjustment. Our claim is that when learners believe a circumstance offers a valuable and manageable opportunity for gain, they engage it by regulating their expectations, choices, and actions to produce a result that yields a satisfactory change in circumstances — usually a gain toward some end. This in turn produces an experience of control over the circumstance that positively affects subsequent beliefs about the opportunities for gain in that situation. This is how opportunities affect engagement and how engagement affects adjustment.
