15.09.2014
Change, Agency and Continuity
IMAGINATION IN THE LIFECOURSE
Tania Zittoun, University of Neuchâtel
Finnish National Congress of Psychology
University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, August 22, 2014
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Overview
1. Sociocultural psychology of the lifecourse
2. Imagination
3. Imagination in development
1. Sociocultural psychology
of the lifecourse
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Sociocultural psychology
Sociocultural psychology…
Humans are cultural beings : Lev Vygotsky (1929, 1986) and pragmatism : William James (1890) and Charles Peirce (1877):
4 assumptions: 1. Unicity of the person
2. Interaction and relation with others and the world
3. Temporality
4. Sense making
1. Narratives : Jerome Bruner (1977, 1990, 2003)
2. Cultural tools (Michael Cole, 1996) and collective memory (James Wertsch, 1991, 1998)
–
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NB: FIN Cultural‐historical theory (CHAT): Yrjio
Engeström, Kristiina Kumpulainen, etc. 3. Semiotic dynamics: Jaan Valsiner (1998, 2000, 2007, 2012a, 2012b, 2014). 5
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….of the lifecourse
• Development all life long, in a changing world
• No linear trajectory, unpredictability • Ruptures and transitions, bifurcations…
• Yet needs for integrity and continuity
What resources? What dynamics?
2. Imagination
Baltes, 1997; Elder, 2002; Erikson, 1968; Valsiner & Lawrence, 1997; Zittoun et al, 2013
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Imagination, an overview
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Imagination, an overview
• In philosophy, as the capacity to see what is not present to the senses.
• BUT: visual or multimodal? Reproductive or creative? Primitive or part of the possibility of culture (Vico) or freedom (Sartre)?
• In psychology same debates • For some: fundamental in development (Freud 1908, Vygotsky, 1931, 1933; Winnicott, 1971; Harris, 2000; Singer & Singer 1992, 2005):
• Visible in childhood in play, and progressively internalized; allows fiction, daydream, creativity, invention, cultural experiences in general
• “As if”, bracketing of reality, real consequences
• Develops as any other skill, through the progressive mastery of specific semiotic systems
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Imagination, proposition
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Imagination vs. creativity
• Proposition: Imagination draws on various experiences the person has of, or through the cultural world, through diverse senses, now combined, organized or integrated in new forms, which allows to explore the past, the future, as well as alternative possibilities. • NB: creativity, in current research, demands socially acknowledged outcomes (Glăveanu, 2014; Tanggaard, 2014). After Vygotsky, 1934; Pelaprat & Cole, 2010
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Imagination as a loop
Imagination as a loop
Resources
Imaginary loop
Triggers
Time
Outcomes
Time
Immediate
experience of socially shared
reality
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Imagination: Rachel, 11
Imagination as a loop
Cultural artefacts
• I’d like to become a journalist, a reporter, actually. I would like to go for adventures. And at the same time to be able to write, because I like it very much. (..) Oh, I have a diary, I make up stories and I write poetry. (Bakhti, 2010, Zittoun & de Saint‐
Social representation, discourses
Social recognition
Personal
experiences
Time
Laurent, 2014)
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Methodological parenthesis
• Theoretical work
• Empirical studies
– Qualitative and quantitative studies on learning and transitions with A.‐N. Perret‐Clermont, M. Grossen (Zittoun & Perret‐Clermont, 2009; Zittoun, 2004, 2006, 2007b; Zittoun & Grossen, 2012); – Longitudinal case studies (diaries, self‐writing, documentaries) with A. Gillespie, J. Valsiner, C. de Saint‐Laurent (Gillespie, Cornish, Aveling, & Zittoun, 2008; 3. Imagination in development
Gillespie & Zittoun, 2010; Zittoun & Gillespie, in pressa, 2012; Zittoun et al., 2013; Zittoun & de Saint‐Laurent, 2015)
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Spheres of experiences
Case study
• Longitudinal documentary
• Studies of marriages in the 20th Century, by Helena Třeštíkova (2009)
• 7 couples, 1980‐2006
• Young man’s trajectory, from “Zuzana a Stanislav” • Wedding in 1980
Work 2
Work
Partner
Parent’s Home
Friends
School
Holidays
Music
After A. Schuetz (1944, 1945)
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Dynamics of transitions
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Stanislav’s spheres of experiences
Zittoun & Perret‐Clermont, 2009; Zittoun et al. 2013
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Stan’s spheres 1980
Work
Parent’s Home
Stan’s spheres 82
Zuzana’s
place/child
Work
Zuzana’s
place/child
Parent’s Home
electronics
Army electronics
Bike
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Zuzana 1983
Zuzana 1983
We’re hoping for a flat so we can move. I don’t know when. It has to be furnished which isn’t easy. When we’ll be on our own, it’ll be better. I don’t like it like this anymore.
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Zuzana 1983
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Zuzana 1983
We’re hoping for a flat so we can move. I don’t know when. It has to be furnished which isn’t easy. When we’ll be on our own, it’ll be better. I don’t like it like this anymore.
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Stan’s spheres 86
Zuzana’s
place/child
Work
Work2
electronics
Parent’s Home
Satellite Dish
Army Electronics
Bike
Telescope
Family house
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Stanislav 1986
This is a program that calculates classical biorhythms. It also has the extra feature that there’s sound, like it can also talk, de facto, even if it’s not that understandable. What can the computer do? It’s really wide open. (…) You can play different games on it but that’s not its main function. It can really help simplify calculations. I wrote a program in conjunction with the telescope (..)
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Stanislav 1986
Stanislav 1986
…And you get a good feeling because not everybody could do this. When you look at the moon in 200 magnifications, it’s a very breath‐
taking, aesthetic experience. It’s not just what you see, it’s also that you start thinking about it, start reading books about it, about the creation of the universe, the Big Bang, where it is assumed everything exploded from a single place. What was before that?
…And you get a good feeling because not everybody could do this. When you look at the moon in 200 magnifications, it’s a very breath‐
taking, aesthetic experience. It’s not just what you see, it’s also that you start thinking about it, start reading books about it, about the creation of the universe, the Big Bang, where it is assumed everything exploded from a single place. What was before that?
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Proximal and distal experiences
Stanislav 1986
Work
Family house
The origin of Universe
Telescope
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Zittoun & Gillespie in press
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Ruptures and transitions
Rupture
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Inner perspective?
Bifurcation point
2013 After : Trajectory equifinality model Sato et al. 2013 REVOLUTION 1989
Imagination in transition
Work
Satellite dish
IMAGINATION
Family house
The origin of Universe
Telescope
The Revolution: Stanislav’s new sphere of experience
???
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REVOLUTION 1989
Stanislav 2003
• Before the revolution I built a satellite receiver. Suddenly our living room was a place where these instant, cool images flashed through, with words we didn’t understand. What could you do with that? We bought a book and began teaching ourselves. Zuzana quit after a while. And today I make my living as an interpreter. 43
Work
Satellite Dish
???
Family house
Th origin of Universe
Telescope
The Revolution: Stanislav’s new sphere of experience
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REVOLUTION 1989
REVOLUTION 1989
Work
Foreign country: German
Foreign country: German
Work
Foreign country: German
Satellite Dish
New Work
Family house
New Work
Th origin of Universe
Family house
Telescope
The Revolution: Stanislav’s new sphere of experience
Th origin of Universe
Telescope
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The Revolution: Stanislav’s new sphere of experience
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Imagination and transitions
The development of imagination
• In one sphere of experience
• To create and explore possibilities
• As creating distal experiences which can guide real experiences
• As means to connect diverse experiences, and learn from them
• Reversely, difficulties when imagination is inhibited
1. Imagination develops all life‐long: In a given sphere of experience, in their creation, and across sphere of experience
2. Imagination plays a main role in the “emergence of the subject” and freedom (Zittoun, 2012b, 2014)
3. The maturation of imagination produces “personal life philosophies” (Valsiner, 2007)
4. Imagination plays a main role in the “melody of our living” (Zittoun et al., 2013). 47
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Stanislav, 2006
The development of imagination
I feel I’m lucky in that if I now look back, I’ve the feeling I’ve never had it so good as I do today. And this state of mind is pretty constant for me now. I remember a time in my childhood when I was looking forward to being an adult. Then I became one and since then it’s been good.
1. Imagination develops all life‐long: In a given sphere of experience, in their creation, and across sphere of experience
2. Imagination plays a main role in the “emergence of the subject” and freedom (Zittoun, 2012b, 2014)
3. The maturation of imagination produces “personal life philosophies” (Valsiner, 2007)
4. Imagination plays a main role in the “melody of our living” (Zittoun et al., 2013). 49
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Conclusion
• How to describe the life course, and challenges for integrity and continuity?
• Spheres of experiences, dynamics of transitions, sense‐making..
• And overall imagination… an invitation!
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!!
Kiitos
[email protected]
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