Human Development in the Life Course: Melodies of Living

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Human Development in the Life Course: Melodies of Living

Book•

Human Development in the Life Course: Melodies of Living

Tania Zittoun¹, Jaan Valsiner², Dankert Vedeler³, João Salgado, Miguel M. Gonçalves⁴, Dieter Ferring⁵ - Show less +2 more•Institutions (5)

University of Neuchâtel¹, Clark University², Norwegian University of Science and Technology³, University of Minho⁴, University of Luxembourg⁵

14 Nov 2013-

TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a model of time for the life course and a melody of life as a melody, which they describe as "playing while being serious" and "playing under the influence".

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Abstract: Preface: from dispute to collaboration Introduction: melodies of living Part I. Time for Development: 1. Solidity of science and fullness of living: a theoretical expose 2. Imagination and the life course 3. Moving through time: imagination and memory as semiotic processes 4. Models of time for the life course Part II. Spaces for Development: 5. Social framing of lives: from phenomena to theories 6. Stability and innovation in adults narrating their lives: insights from psychotherapy research 7. Paradoxes of learning Part III. Beyond Time and Space: Imagination: 8. We are migrants! 9. Playing while being serious: the lifelong game of development - and its tools 10. Playing under the influence: activity contexts in their social functions 11. 'Old age' as living forward 12. Epilogue: the course of life as a melody.

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A sociocultural psychology of the life-course

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Tania Zittoun

01 Jan 2016

TL;DR: For instance, Perret-clermont et al. as discussed by the authors pointed out that the social dimensions of the interactions in which children were located were as much part of the solution of a task, as cognition itself.

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Abstract: S I YOUNG ACADEMIC, I was lucky enough to be trained by scholars who were both developmental and social psychologists such as Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont, in Neuchâtel, Gerard Duveen in Cambridge, who used the term ‘social psychology of development’ to characterise their work from the late 1970s to the 1990s, together with others in Switzerland, the UK and around Europe. Initially working from a Piagetian perspective, these authors soon realised that the social dimensions of the interactions in which children were located were as much part of the solution of a task, as cognition itself. These studies moved through a series of paradigms, in which the status of the social progressively changed; initially a variable, it became clear that the ‘social’ was actually the nature of the interaction between participants, or even, the definition of the situation as it unfolds; and the emphasis on what is learned moved from the pure task resolution, to the child’s capacity to make sense to the demands of a complex situation (Durkin, 1995; Duveen, 1997; Grossen & Perret-Clermont, 1994; Hinde, Perret-Clermont & Hinde, 1985; Perret-Clermont & Carugati, 2001; Perret-Clermont, Perret & Bell, 1991; Psaltis, Duveen & Perret-Clermont, 2009; Schubauer-Leoni, Grossen & Perret-Clermont, 1992; Zittoun & Iannaccone, 2014). In parallel, after the end of Communism, a new wind blew in European and American research with the diffusion of Lev Vygotsky’s work, through the writings of Jerome Bruner (Bruner, 1990), Michael Cole (Cole, 1996) and Jaan Valsiner (Valsiner, 1987; Valsiner & van der Veer, 2000; van der Veer & Valsiner, 1993). Vygotsky’s ‘first law of development’, according to which every acquisition is first social, before being reconstructed on a psychological plane, as well as his emphasis on semiotic mediation, invited to a new understanding of development. First, the social is not a bias, not even a condition or a catalyst of development: it is what allows development , and its deep precondition; second, the social designates not only classes, or relations; it also encompasses the materiality, as well as the semiotic texture of a historically situated situation. Expanding the social to the sociocultural in broader sense, research progressively moved from studies in the lab to situated learning, in the workplace, at school, or in the hospital (Duveen, 2001; Grossen & Perret-Clermont, 1992; Grossen, Zittoun & Ros, 2012; Perret-Clermont, 1997, 2015; Perret-Clermont et al., 2004; Perret & Perret-Clermont, A socialcultural psychology of the life-course

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14 citations

Cites background from "Human Development in the Life Cours..."

...In any case, living in our complex world appears as much about what we really do and how we act, as about what we dream about, hope for, or regret (Zittoun et al., 2013b; Zittoun & Valsiner, in press)....
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...…Over the past years, together with various colleagues, such Jaan Valsiner, Alex Gillespie, Pernille Hviid, and many others, we tried to develop models that account for development from a perspective closer to the person (Hviid & Zittoun, 2008; Zittoun et al., 2013a; Zittoun & Gillespie, 2015a)....
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Book•

Social Thinking and History: A Sociocultural Psychological Perspective on Representations of the Past

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Constance de Saint Laurent

14 Sep 2020

TL;DR: Social Thinking and History as discussed by the authors proposes a new perspective on how we understand and use our collective past and how we learn to challenge or appropriate the stories we have heard about the past.

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Abstract: Social Thinking and History demonstrates that our representations of history are constructed through complex psychosocial processes in interaction with multiple others, and that they evolve throughout our lifetime, playing an important role in our relation to our social environment. Building on the literature on social thinking, collective memory, and sociocultural psychology, this book proposes a new perspective on how we understand and use our collective past. It focuses on how we actively think about history to construct representations of the world within which we live and how we learn to challenge or appropriate the stories we have heard about the past. Through the analysis of three studies of how history is understood and represented in different contexts – in political discourses in France, by intellectuals and artists in Belgium, and when discussing a current event in Poland – its aim is to offer a rich picture of our representations of the past and the role they play in everyday life. This book will be of great interest toacademics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of psychology, memory studies, sociology, political science, and history. It will also make an interesting read for psychologists and human and social scientists working on collective memory.

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14 citations

Cites background from "Human Development in the Life Cours..."

...It thus appears that, in a way similar to that described by Zittoun et al. (2013) about the development of Personal Life Philosophies (PLP) through the life course, we also produce what could be called Personal World Philosophies (de Saint Laurent, 2018)....
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...…the temporal dimension of TCP has, as a result, disconnected it from the subject that uses and constructs RCP. Sociocultural developmental perspectives consider that because human life takes place in irreversible time (Valsiner, 1994), it creates unique trajectories (Zittoun et al., 2013)....
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...Generally, however, PLP take a simpler form, such as when one concludes after a string of heartbreaks that love can only hurt, or after having mastered a long-coveted skill with much effort that hard work is always rewarded (Zittoun et al., 2013)....
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...Humans live and develop in irreversible time (Valsiner, 1994), creating unique trajectories (Zittoun et al., 2013)....
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...Through time, people engage in multiple spheres of experience, encounter different systems of values and meanings, and participate in various cultural practices (Zittoun, 2006, 2012; Zittoun et al., 2013)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Negotiating developmental projects: Unaccompanied Afghan refugee boys in Norway:

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Guro Brokke Omland¹, Agnes Andenas¹•Institutions (1)

University of Oslo¹

01 Feb 2018-Childhood

TL;DR: Unaccompanied refugee minors are, like other youngsters, making their moves towards adulthood, but under most challenging conditions as discussed by the authors, informed by a cultural psychological approach to development, w...

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Abstract: Unaccompanied refugee minors are, like other youngsters, making their moves towards adulthood, but under most challenging conditions. Informed by a cultural psychological approach to development, w...

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13 citations

Cites background from "Human Development in the Life Cours..."

...The task of getting older has been found to occupy a central position in the lives of children and young people (Gulbrandsen, 2003), and we will use the concept of developmental project to draw attention to how the boys actively negotiated meaning of what growing older might entail and thus created direction in their own pathway towards adulthood (Zittoun et al., 2013)....
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...…the lives of children and young people (Gulbrandsen, 2003), and we will use the concept of developmental project to draw attention to how the boys actively negotiated meaning of what growing older might entail and thus created direction in their own pathway towards adulthood (Zittoun et al., 2013)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Imagining a better future: Young unemployed people and the polyphonic choir:

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Sabina Pultz¹, Pernille Hviid¹•Institutions (1)

University of Copenhagen¹

25 Jul 2016-Culture and Psychology

TL;DR: This paper investigated how young unemployed people make sense of their situation in the face of adversity, drawing on Cultural Life Course Theory and a new line of research on imagination, and found that they make use of imagination to cope with their situation.

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Abstract: In this paper, we investigate how young unemployed people make sense of their situation in the face of adversity. Drawing on Cultural Life Course Theory and a new line of research on imagination, t...

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13 citations

Cites background from "Human Development in the Life Cours..."

...In psychology, imagination has been treated in relation to children’s play by both Freud and Piaget, and it has been associated with adult fantasies, but it has rarely been seen as part of the quotidian affairs of adult life until recently (Zittoun, 2013)....
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...The understanding of meaning making as an embodied process moving through institutional and semiotic structures implicates taking into account the social institutions and symbolic resources (Gillespie & Zittoun, 2013)....
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...The concept of imagination has recently received renewed attention in the socio-cultural literature (e.g. Gillespie & Zittoun, 2013; Zittoun & Glaveanu, 2016; Zittoun & Gillespie, 2016)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Living Creatively, In and Through Institutions.

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Tania Zittoun

29 Feb 2016-Europe’s Journal of Psychology

TL;DR: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Abstract: Europe's Journal of Psychology, 2016, Vol. 12(1), 1–11, doi:10.5964/ejop.v12i1.1133 Published (VoR): 2016-02-29. *Corresponding author at: Institute of Psychology and Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of Neuchâtel, Espace Louis-Agassiz 1, CH – 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland. E-mail: tania.zittoun@unine.ch This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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13 citations

Cites background from "Human Development in the Life Cours..."

...…might be useful to distinguish institutions that are strongly bounded to a material setting, such as a school or a ministry, or more fluid institutions, such a football matches, that are highly regulated yet can take places in different places and dissolve again (Zittoun et al., 2013, pp. 144-145)....
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References

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Open Access

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Book•

Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation

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Jeanne Lave, Etienne Wenger

01 Jan 1991

TL;DR: This work has shown that legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice is not confined to midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, non-drinking alcoholics and the like.

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Abstract: In this important theoretical treatist, Jean Lave, anthropologist, and Etienne Wenger, computer scientist, push forward the notion of situated learning - that learning is fundamentally a social process. The authors maintain that learning viewed as situated activity has as its central defining characteristic a process they call legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). Learners participate in communities of practitioners, moving toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community. LPP provides a way to speak about crucial relations between newcomers and old-timers and about their activities, identities, artefacts, knowledge and practice. The communities discussed in the book are midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, and recovering alcoholics, however, the process by which participants in those communities learn can be generalised to other social groups.

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43,846 citations

Book•

A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

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Leon Festinger¹•Institutions (1)

Stanford University¹

01 Jan 1957

TL;DR: Cognitive dissonance theory links actions and attitudes as discussed by the authors, which holds that dissonance is experienced whenever one cognition that a person holds follows from the opposite of at least one other cognition that the person holds.

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Abstract: Cognitive dissonance theory links actions and attitudes It holds that dissonance is experienced whenever one cognition that a person holds follows from the opposite of at least one other cognition that the person holds The magnitude of dissonance is directly proportional to the number of discrepant cognitions and inversely proportional to the number of consonant cognitions that a person has The relative weight of any discrepant or consonant element is a function of its Importance

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22,553 citations

Book•

The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception

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James J. Gibson¹•Institutions (1)

Princeton University¹

01 Jan 1979

TL;DR: The relationship between Stimulation and Stimulus Information for visual perception is discussed in detail in this article, where the authors also present experimental evidence for direct perception of motion in the world and movement of the self.

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Abstract: Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part I: The Environment To Be Perceived.The Animal And The Environment. Medium, Substances, Surfaces. The Meaningful Environment. Part II: The Information For Visual Perception.The Relationship Between Stimulation And Stimulus Information. The Ambient Optic Array. Events And The Information For Perceiving Events. The Optical Information For Self-Perception. The Theory Of Affordances. Part III: Visual Perception.Experimental Evidence For Direct Perception: Persisting Layout. Experiments On The Perception Of Motion In The World And Movement Of The Self. The Discovery Of The Occluding Edge And Its Implications For Perception. Looking With The Head And Eyes. Locomotion And Manipulation. The Theory Of Information Pickup And Its Consequences. Part IV: Depiction.Pictures And Visual Awareness. Motion Pictures And Visual Awareness. Conclusion. Appendixes: The Principal Terms Used in Ecological Optics. The Concept of Invariants in Ecological Optics.

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21,493 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.

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Julian B. Rotter¹•Institutions (1)

University of Connecticut¹

01 Jan 1966-The Psychological Monographs

TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of reward or reinforcement on preceding behavior depend in part on whether the person perceives the reward as contingent on his own behavior or independent of it, and individuals may also differ in generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.

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Abstract: The effects of reward or reinforcement on preceding behavior depend in part on whether the person perceives the reward as contingent on his own behavior or independent of it. Acquisition and performance differ in situations perceived as determined by skill versus chance. Persons may also differ in generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. This report summarizes several experiments which define group differences in behavior when Ss perceive reinforcement as contingent on their behavior versus chance or experimenter control. The report also describes the development of tests of individual differences in a generalized belief in internal-external control and provides reliability, discriminant validity and normative data for 1 test, along with a description of the results of several studies of construct validity.

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21,451 citations

Book•

Identity, youth, and crisis

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Erik H. Erikson

01 Jan 1968

TL;DR: Erikson as mentioned in this paper describes a process that is located both in the core of the individual and in the inner space of the communal culture, and discusses the connection between individual struggles and social order.

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Abstract: Identity, Erikson writes, is an unfathomable as it is all-pervasive. It deals with a process that is located both in the core of the individual and in the core of the communal culture. As the culture changes, new kinds of identity questions arise-Erikson comments, for example, on issues of social protest and changing gender roles that were particular to the 1960s. Representing two decades of groundbreaking work, the essays are not so much a systematic formulation of theory as an evolving report that is both clinical and theoretical. The subjects range from "creative confusion" in two famous lives-the dramatist George Bernard Shaw and the philosopher William James-to the connection between individual struggles and social order. "Race and the Wider Identity" and the controversial "Womanhood and the Inner Space" are included in the collection.

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14,906 citations