Skip to main content

Introduction: Sociality, Learning, and the Creative Unfolding of Human Existence

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 772 Accesses

Abstract

The introduction to the text outlines its approach to the study of learning and becoming, taking its lead from the interdependency that characterizes human existence throughout the entirety of the lifespan. Human sociality is seen as a readiness for learning that is already apparent in utero. This assertion in no way assumes a merely passive posture on the part of the developing person. Every human being evidences a degree of openness to learning in-the-world-with-others, the magnitude of which can be assessed on the basis of the learner’s relative enthusiasm for learning. It is argued that human beings are creatures for whom there is a necessary confluence of learning and imagination (envisioned as a synthetic power with creative potential) in the unfolding of human becoming.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adler, A. (1958). What life should mean to you. New York, NY: Capricorn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alberts, A., Elkind, D., Ginsber, S. (2007). The personal fable and risk-taking in early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36, 71–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aue, T., Lavelle, L. A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2009). Great expectations: What can fMRI research tell us about psychological phenomena? International Journal of Psychophysiology, 73, 10–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bahler, B. (2015). Levinas and the parent-child relation: A Merleau-Pontyian critique of applying Levinas’s thought to developmental psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 43, 128–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, L., & Schniedewind, N. (1989). Realizing the promise of humanistic education: A reconstructed pedagogy for personal and social change. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 29, 200–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bertau, M. C., Gongalves, M. M., & Raggatt, P. T. F. (Eds.) (2012). Dialogic formation: Investigation into the origins and development of the dialogical self. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bluestone, C. D. (2005). Humans are born too soon: Impact on pediatric otolaryngology. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngoly, 69, 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnett, M. (2009) Schools as places of unselving: An educational pathology? In G. Dall’alba (Ed.), Exploring education through phenomenology: Diverse approaches. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boss, M. (1963) Psychoanalysis and daseinsanalysis. New York, NY: DaCapo Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, J. (1952). Maternal care and mental health. London: Jason Aronson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Champlin, J. (2013). Born again: Arendt’s “natality “as figure and concept. The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 88, 150–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colaizzi, P. F. (1971). Analysis of the learner’s perception of learning material at various phases of a learning process. In A. Giorgi, W. F. Fischer, & R. von Eckartsberg (Eds.), Duquesne studies in phenomenological psychology: Volume I (pp. 101–111). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colaizzi, P. F. (1978). Learning and existence. In R. S. Valle & M. King (Eds.), Existential-phenomenological alternatives for psychology (pp. 119–135). New York, NY: NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Argembeau, A., Comblain, C., & van der Linden, M. (2005). Affective valence and the self-reference effect: Influence of retrieval conditions. British Journal of Psychology, 96, 457–466.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY: Putnam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio, A. R. (2010). Self comes to mind: Constructing the conscious brain. New York, NY: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2000). The long-term significance of having been psychologically maltreated by one’s maternal figure: An empirical-phenomenological investigation (Doctoral Dissertation, Duquesne University). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 9991680).

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2008). Humanizing child developmental theory: A holistic approach. New York, NY: iUniverse.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2011). St. Thomas Aquinas’s philosophical-anthropology as a viable underpinning for a holistic psychology: A dialogue with existential-phenomenology. Janus Head, 12, 62–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2012a). Existential-phenomenological psychology: A brief introduction. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2012b). The whole child: Selected papers on existential-humanistic child psychology. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2013). Profiles of personality: An approach-based companion. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2015a). A neuroscientific renaissance of humanistic psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 55, 323–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2015b). Philosophical-anthropological considerations for an existential-humanistic ecopsychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 43, 323–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis, E. M. (2015c). Toward a humanistic-multicultural model of development. In K. J. Schneider, J. F. Pierson, & J. F. T. Bugental, (Eds.), The handbook of humanistic psychology: Theory research, and practice (2nd edition ) (pp. 227–242). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRobertis E. M. & McIntyre, S. (2016). Development through a humanistic lens. In R. Bargdill & R. Broomé (Eds.), Humanistic contributions for psychology 101: Growth, choice, and responsibility (pp.117–132). Colorado Springs, CO: University Professors Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doane, M. A. (2002). Technology’s body: Cinematic vision in modernity. In J. M. Bean & D. Negra (Eds.), A feminist reader in early cinema (pp. 530–551). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dreyfus, S. E., & Dreyfus, H. L. (1980). A five-stage model of the mental activities involved in directed skill acquisition (No. ORC-80–2). Berkeley California: California University Berkeley Operations Research Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunsworth, H. M., Warrener, A. G., Deacon, T., Ellison, P. T. & Pontzer, H. (2012). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 38, 15212–15216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S., Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2014). Academic tenacity: Mindsets and skills that promote long-term learning. Seattle, WA: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved from https://ed.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/manual/dweck-walton-cohen-2014.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkind, D. (1967) Egocentrism in adolescence. Child Development, 38, 1025–1034.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellenberger, H. F. (1958). A clinical introduction to psychiatric phenomenology and existential analysis. In R. May, E. Angel, & H. F. Ellenberger (Eds.), Existence: A new dimension in psychiatry and psychology (pp. 92–126). New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frankenberger, K. D. (2000). Adolescent egocentrism: A comparison among adolescents and adults. Journal of Adolescence, 23, 343–354.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1960). Psychopathology of everyday life. New York, NY: New American Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fromm, E. (1947). Man for himself: An inquiry into the psychology of ethics. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, A. R. (1990). Insight into value: An exploration of the premises of a phenomenological psychology. Albany: State University of N.Y. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. (1967). A phenomenological approach to the problem of meaning and serial learning. Review of existential psychology and psychiatry, 7, 106–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. (1970). Psychology as a human science: A phenomenologically based approach. New York, NY: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. (1975). An application of phenomenological method in psychology. In A. Giorgi, C. Fischer, & E. Murray (Eds.), Duquesne studies in phenomenological psychology volume II (pp. 82–103). Pittsburgh: Duquesne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. (1979). Phenomenology and psychological theory. In A. Giorgi, R. Knowles, & D. L. Smith (Eds.), Duquesne studies in phenomenological psychology volume III (pp. 60–80). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. (1992). Whither humanistic psychology? The Humanistic Psychologist, 20, 422–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. (1999). A phenomenological perspective on some phenomenographic results on learning. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 30, 68–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, A. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hepper, P. G. (1991). An examination of fetal learning before and after birth. The Irish journal of psychology, 12, 95–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hopson, J. L. (1998, September). Fetal psychology. Psychology today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199809/fetal-psychology

  • Horney, K. (1950). Neurosis and human growth: The struggle toward self-realization. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E. (1962). Ideas: An introduction to pure phenomenology and a phenomenological philosophy. New York, NY: Collier Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E. (1970). The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology. Evanston, IL: Northwestern.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe, J., Beebe, B., Feldstein, S., Crown, C., & Jasnow, M. (2001). Rhythms of dialogue in infancy: Monographs for the society for research and child development. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jager, B. (1971). Horizontality and verticality: A phenomenological exploration into lived space. In A. Giorgi, W. F. Fischer, & R. von Eckartsberg (Eds.), Duquesne studies in phenomenological psychology, Volume I (pp. 212–235). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1961). Psychology: The briefer course. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jonassen, D. & Land, S. (Eds.) (2012). Theoretical foundations of learning environments. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E. F. (2010). The mirage of a space between nature and nurture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kleese, D. A. (2001). Nature and nature in psychology. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 21, 61–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knowles, R. T. (1986). Human development and human possibility: Erikson in the light of Heidegger. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koffka, K. (1931). The growth of the mind. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration of the self. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolb, D. A. (1976). Learning style inventory manual. Boston: McBer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges & Universities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Küpers, W. (2008). Embodied “inter-learning”–an integral phenomenology of learning in and by organizations. The Learning Organization, 15, 388–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langfur, S. (2014). Heidegger and the infant: A second-person alternative to the dasein-analysis. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 34, 257–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lapsley, D. K., Milstead, M., Quintana, S. M., Flannery, D. & Buss, R. R. (1986). Adolescent egocentrism and formal operations: Tests of a theoretical assumption. Developmental Psychology, 22, 800–807.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leung, A. K., Maddux, W. W., Galinsky, A. D., & Chiu, C. (2008). Multicultural experience enhances creativity: The when and how. American Psychologist, 63, 169–181.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Ruscio, J., & Beyerstein, B. L. (2010). 50 great myths of popular psychology: Shattering widespread misconceptions about human behavior. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Masten, A. S., & Reed, M. G. J. (2002). Resilience in development. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 74–88). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsumoto, D. & Juang, L. (2013). Culture and psychology. Belmont, CA: Cengage.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, R. (1979). Psychology and the human dilemma. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, R. (1991). The cry for myth. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (1942/1963). The structure of behavior (A. Fisher, Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). The primacy of perception. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (2010). Child psychology and pedagogy. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R. (1997). What are schools for?: Holistic education in American culture (3rd edition. Brandon, VT: Holistic Education Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R. (2000). Beyond reductionism: The emerging holistic paradigm in education. Holistic Education Review, 28, 382–393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R. (2014). Educating the child’s inner power [Alternative Education Resource Organization post]. Retrieved from https://www.educationrevolution.org/blog/education-the-childs-inner-power/

  • Montagu, A. (1955). The direction of human development. New York, NY: Hawthorn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, K. (2016, August 27). Do you believe in God, or is that a software glitch?New York Times, Sunday Review News Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/opinion/sunday/do-you-believe-in-god-or-is-that-a-software-glitch.html?_r=1

  • Murray, E. L. (1986). Imaginative thinking and human existence. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, E. L. (2001). The quest for personality integration: Reimaginizing our lives. Pittsburgh: Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mysterud, I. (2003). Long live nature via nurture! [Review of the book Nature via Nurture: Genes, experience and what makes us human, by Matt Ridley]. Evolutionary psychology, 1, 188–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura, J. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2001). Catalytic creativity: The case of Linus Pauling. American Psychologist, 56, 337–341.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nel, B. F. (1973). The phenomenological approach to pedagogy. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 3, 201–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pappas, S. (2012, August). Why pregnancy really lasts 9 months. Live Science. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/22715-pregnancy-length-baby-size.html

  • Pezdek, K & Roe, C. (1994). Memory for childhood events: How suggestible is it? Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 179–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1967). The child’s conception of space. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, C. R. (1954). Towards a theory of creativity. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 11, 249–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, C. R. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships, as developed in the client-centered framework. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of a science (Vol. 3) (pp. 184–256). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rojcewicz, R. (1987). Merleau-Ponty and cognitive child psychology. Journal of phenomenological psychology, 18, 201–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberger, N. R. (1992). Japanese sense of self. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D. (1989a). Beyond Ponce de Leon and life satisfaction: New directions in quest of successful aging. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 12, 35–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D. (1989b). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069–1081.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 719–727.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sai, F. Z. (2005). The role of the mother’s voice in developing mother’s face preference: Evidence for intermodal perception at birth. Infant and child development, 14, 29–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schachtel, E. G. (1959). Metamorphosis: On the development of affect, perception, attention, and memory. New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Introducing psychology. New York, NY: Worth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schor, J. B. (2004). Born to buy: The commercialized child and the new consumer culture. New York, NY: Scribner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spitz, R. A. (1945). Hospitalism-An inquiry into the genesis of psychiatric conditions in early childhood. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 1, 53–74.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stawarska, B. (2009). Between you and I: Dialogical phenomenology. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, D. N. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. NY: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strasser, S. (1969). The idea of dialogal phenomenology. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Straus, E. W. (1966). Phenomenological psychology. New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullo, B. (2007). Activating the desire to learn. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullo, B. (2009). The motivated student: Unlocking the enthusiasm for learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, E. & Smith, L. B. (1994). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tronick, E. Z. (1989). Emotions and emotional communication in infants. American Psychologist, 44, 112–119.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tymieniecka, A. T. (2007). Phenomenology of life from the animal soul to the human mind: Book II. The human soul in the creative transformation of the mind. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • van den Berg, J. H. (1972). A different existence. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for action sensitive pedagogy. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vandenberg, B. (1999). Levinas and the ethical context of human development. Human Development, 42, 31–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varendi, H., Porter, R. H., & Winberg, J. (1996). Attractiveness of amniotic fluid odor: Evidence of prenatal olfactory learning? Acta Paediatrica, 85, 1223–1227.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • von Eckartsberg, R. (1978). Person perception revisited. In R. Valle & M. King (Eds.), Existential-phenomenological alternatives for psychology (pp. 182–202). New York, NY: NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Eckartsberg, R. (1979). The eco-psychology of personal culture building: An existential-hermeneutic approach. In A. Giorgi, R. Knowles, & D. L. Smith (Eds.), Duquesne studies in phenomenological psychology, volume III (pp. 227–244). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Eckartsberg, R. (1989). The unfolding meaning of intentionality and horizon in phenomenology. The humanistic psychologist, 17, 146–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner, H. (1948). Comparative psychology of mental development. New York, NY: International Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wertz, F. J. (1993). The phenomenology of Sigmund Freud, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 24, 101–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The maturational process and the facilitating environment: Studies in the theory of emotional development. London: Hogarth Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

DeRobertis, E.M. (2017). Introduction: Sociality, Learning, and the Creative Unfolding of Human Existence. In: The Phenomenology of Learning and Becoming. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95204-5_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics