Human Development in the Life Course
Melodies of Living

This book shows how individuals develop a unique style or 'melody' of living, beyond physical and social constraints.

Tania Zittoun (Author), Jaan Valsiner (Author), Dankert Vedeler (Author), João Salgado (Author), Miguel M. Gonçalves (Author), Dieter Ferring (Author)

9781107562387, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 October 2015

446 pages, 47 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 2.4 cm, 0.65 kg

'An exceptionally interesting book about the uniqueness of each human being. The volume centres on human development and its trajectories, meaning-making and imagination. This highly original collection of essays will attract cultural scholars and those who search for new ways of doing human and social science.' Ivana Markova, University of Stirling

Drawing on philosophy, the history of psychology and the natural sciences, this book proposes a new theoretical foundation for the psychology of the life course. It features the study of unique individual life courses in their social and cultural environment, combining the perspectives of developmental and sociocultural psychology, psychotherapy, learning sciences and geronto-psychology. In particular, the book highlights semiotic processes, specific to human development, that allow us to draw upon past experiences, to choose among alternatives and to plan our futures. Imagination is an important outcome of semiotic processes and enables us to deal with daily constraints and transitions, and promotes the transformation of social representation and symbolic systems - giving each person a unique style, or 'melody', of living. The book concludes by questioning the methodology and epistemology of current life course studies.

Preface: from dispute to collaboration
Introduction: melodies of living
Part I. Time for Development: 1. Solidity of science and fullness of living: a theoretical exposé
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.

Subject Areas: Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Psychology [JM], Sociology [JHB]