This course is guided by the discipline of humanistic psychology in understanding how identity and self-concept are formed, and how personal identity guides the individual to reach chosen life goals.
The lectures will draw on the tutor's recent writing on children’s psychological development, and the fulfilment of personality in professional roles including those of nurses, drawing on scholars in the tradition of humanistic psychology including William James, Adorno, Jung and Adler, Fromm, Maslow, Erikson, Dabrowski and others.
The course may also consider the scholar’s role as an auto ethnographer (including reflexive anthropology), in which the scholar reflects on a deep understanding of his or her own culture or social system.
Students will also be invited to reflect on their own experiences, encounters and socialization in a multi-ethnic, plural society.