The group as vehicle and author of transformation: Adult development in its cultural context.
Item
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Title
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The group as vehicle and author of transformation: Adult development in its cultural context.
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Identifier
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AAI9820981
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identifier
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9820981
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Creator
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Renderer, Bobbi Linn.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Laurence Gould
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Date
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1993
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical | Psychology, Developmental | Psychology, Social
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Abstract
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This study examines the processes of adult development as they are mediated by the particular sociocultural setting within which they take place. It takes the premise that members of a small group culture jointly construct a social reality, and shows how this local reality delimits the range of possibility that is available to members of the culture. This demonstration is accomplished through the analysis of narratives told by 16 individuals belonging to two small theater companies, treated here as two miniature cultures. An individual's narrative procedures, it is argued, display features of theme and structure that correspond to the patterns of organization and interpretation which that individual imposes upon experience. The narrative analysis and a group process analysis are aimed at identifying such patterns in the two group cultures that are related to their members' development.;The construction of a cultural setting and the human development within it are complexly interrelated, however. The study therefore further explores the ways in which the construction of social reality within a group is influenced by the psychological and developmental needs of its members. The two groups studied formed their respective companies as members embarked on the phase of adult life that Levinson labels "Entering Early Adulthood" (Levinson et. al., 1978). At the time of data collection, the members were in the phase he labels "The Age 30 Transition." The two cultures are examined and evaluated as solutions to the tasks of life facing members at the time of group formation, and as evolving vehicles supportive of their members' continuing development.;The evidence shows that one group created a culture that more adequately supported the tasks of early adulthood, and that that group experienced ongoing growth. Members of this group appear to be making a smoother transition to the next phase of life. The second group created a culture that did not so successfully support the tasks of young adulthood, and the members' development seems to have been constrained. The genetic thrust of development is moving them forward, but the Age 30 transition is more difficult and conflictual for this group.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
