I autonomins gråzon? En studie om faktorer som påverkar hur allmänheten bedömer andras autonomi

Sammanfattning: The concept of autonomy is often used to describe everyone's right to selfdetermination. However, the concept is also used to describe substantial cognitive capacity to reflect and act in accordance with one’s conscious thought. This lack of clarity about what is meant by the term could lead to arbitrary assessments of other's degree of autonomy, for example within health care and social services. The study's purpose was to examine the influence of several factors on the public’s judgments of other’s capacity and right to autonomy in a number of fictitious situations, and also if there was a correlation between how the ability and the right to autonomy were assessed. The study applied Factorial Survey Approach, a quasiexperimental vignette method. Multiple regression analyzes were conducted for the capacity and the right to autonomy. The results showed that assessments were significantly affected by the risk situation the person was in, and mental health. The assessor’s attitude of personal responsibility, level of education and age were also factors that affected the assessments. Further a tendency to estimate the right to autonomy higher than the capacity for autonomy was shown. The relationship between these estimates was weaker than would be expected.