013314 Identity, Adult Development and Learning

This subject aims to help students to engage critically with the psychological literature on the development of identity during adulthood. The subject is motivated by a concern with how adult education can effect both personal and social change, but with an emphasis on individual subjective change and the extent to which it is intertwined with social change. The central theme is the nature of identity change and transformation and the role of education in this process. The subject explores the way in which psychology has attempted to introduce the social into its theorising. Early attempts in developmental psychology and psychoanalysis are evaluated. Recent work is analysed which attempts to respond to the critique of post-modern theory. A link is then made with existing practices in adult education which, intentionally or otherwise, imply a view of the process of identity change and the role of educational intervention. The potential of adult education as a vehicle for self-transformation is then explored.