EDD 5229

1
EDD 5229 Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society
Lecture 4 Understanding the Curriculum
Content of Liberal Studies I Self, Identity and
Interpersonal Relationship in individualized
society
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Understanding the Structure of the Areas of
Study Self and Personal Development

• The formal structure outlined by the CCD and
  HKEAA
• Module 1 Personal development and interpersonal
  relationship
• Theme1 Understanding oneself
• Theme2 Interpersonal relationship

3
Theories of Personal Identity

• Two paradigms of self and identity formations
• Essentialism Essentialism in identity studies
  refers to approaches which takes social identity,
  such as gender, ethnicity, race, nationality,
  class, as objectively exiting reality. Their
  formations are based on some essentially fixed
  traits such as biological sex, skin color, place
  of birth, formal-legal status, level of income,
  etc.
• Constructionism Constructionism in identity
  studies refers to perspective which conceives
  identity as socially constructed reality. They
  are on one hand collectively constituted in
  social processes or even political movements, and
  on the other hand individually ascription in
  deliberate articulations.

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Theories of Personal Identity

• Two levels of identity
• Studies of identity have been a
  multidisciplinary area of inquiry. It could be
  approached from psychologists, sociological or
  philosophical perspectives. Nevertheless,
  identity has often be studied either at personal
  or collective levels.
• Personal identity It refers to the
  self-description, self-image, or self-conception
  that an individual assigned upon herself. One of
  its fundamental features is the uniqueness of the
  selfhood.
• Social Identity It refers to social-role
  performance that individuals subscribe themselves
  or expected by others and/or membership of social
  categories that individuals applied to themselves
  or imposed upon by others. One of its fundamental
  features is its similarities with others members
  of the social categories concerned.

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Theories of Identity Development

• Two levels of identity
• Though these two levels of identity can
  analytically be differentiated, in reality they
  are closely interconnected or even coherently
  integrated. For example, Anthony Giddens has
  coined the concept of self-identity to depict
  such a phenomanon.

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Theories of Identity Development

• Theory of the self in symbolic interactionism
• The looking-glass self Charles Cooley coined
  the concept in 1902 to indicate the developmental
  process of the self as an interpersonal process.
  It is a reflexive and glass-looking process
  consisting of
• the image of out appearance to the other person
  
• the imagination of his judgment of that
  appearance and
• some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or
  mortification. (Cooley, 1902, p. 184 quoted in
  Broom, 1981, p. 98)
• Accordingly, to Cooley the self is not some
  inborn attributes but social products generated
  from interactions with other fellow humans.
  Furthermore, the self is not a passive receiver
  of others judgments on oneself. It will actively
  interpret and react to these judgments.

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Theories of Identity Development

• The looking-glass self
• Finally, Cooley specifies that the others
  or the looking glasses, from which one takes
  reference are not assigned with equal importance
  by the self. As a result, some others are
  characterized as significant others (i.e.
  parents) while others are simply referent
  others (i.e. ordinary friends)

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Theories of Identity Development

• Symbolic interactionists conception of the self
• Built on Charles Cooleys concept of the
  looking-glass self, George H. Mead and Herbet
  Blumer, two founding father of the symbolic
  interactionsim (a prominent theoretical
  perspective in sociology) specify that the self
  is not a static structure but a dynamic process
  through which attributes, meanings, judgments
  that others passed onto oneself will be interpret
  and reinterpret. That is they saw the self as
  process not a structure. (Blumer, 1969, p.62)
• The process of a self provides the human being
  with a mechanism of self-interaction. Such
  self-interaction takes the form of making
  indications to himself and meeting these
  indications by making further indications. The
  human being can designate things to himself his
  wants, his pains, his goals, object around him,
  the presence of others, their actions, their
  expected actions, or whatnot. (Blumer, p. 62)

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Theories of Identity Development

• Symbolic interactionists conception of the self
• With the mechanism of self-interaction the human
  being ceases to be a responding organism whose
  behavior is a product of what plays upon him from
  the outside, the inside, or both. Instead, he
  acts toward his world, interpreting what
  confronts him and organizing his action on the
  basis of the interpretation. (Blumer, p.63)
• The negotiated self In the perspective of
  symbolic interactionsim, individuals are
  perceived as an active agent in the construction
  of his or her own self-concept. The self that
  emerges is a negotiated self. An important goal
  in this (negotiating) process is the enhancement
  of self-esteem. (Brinkerhoff et al. 1991, p.
  144)

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Theories of Identity Development

• The situated self Another group of
  interactionists has adopted a more structural
  approach (structural school) to the conception of
  the self.
• These sociologists, such as McCall and Simons
  (1978) and Stryker (1968, 1980), emphasize the
  importance of the institutional structure in
  which individuals are situated. It is suggested
  that the self emerged from this situation will be
  conditioned by social expectations or even
  obligations prescribed to the positions, in which
  the individual is assigned into.

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Theories of Identity Development

• The situated self
• The concepts of role and role-identity
• The concept of role refers to the performances
  expected of the occupant of a given position or
  social status, such as the roles of a daughter, a
  wife, a teacher or a HKSAR citizens.
• The concept of role identity signifies that a
  role occupant has internalized the role
  expectations and performances prescribed by
  external social institution to become part of her
  own self. It is exactly through this process of
  internalization of the externalities of the
  social institution that an individual self is
  amalgamated with a social role and as a result
  constituted a social identity.

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Theories of Identity Development

• The situated self
• The concept of role set and role conflict
• The concept of role set refers to the network of
  multiple roles that an individual has to engage
  with at the same time or once at a time. For
  example, a teacher may simultaneously be a
  daughter, a wife and a mother.
• The expectations and performance of these
  multiple roles are most likely to be in conflict.
  As a result, an individual may experience the
  inter-role conflict. For example, in performing
  the role of a school teachers may in conflict
  with the role of a mother and a wife.
  Furthermore, a role occupant may also experience
  intra-role conflict as there may be discrepancies
  among role expectations from different role
  partners of a role. For example, a teacher may
  face conflicting expectations from her students,
  fellow teachers and school head.

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Theories of Identity Development

• The situated self
• Identity hierarchy Confronted with inter-role
  conflict, an individual's identities have to set
  priority with these competing role identities.
  Hence, the concept of identity hierarchy refers
  to the resolution that an individual has to sort
  out in situation of inter-role conflict.

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Theories of Identity Development

• Theory of categorization and social identity
• Apart from interactionalist perspective of
  analyzing how an individuals internalizes role
  expectations and performances into their selves
  and constitutes her role-based identity, Henri
  Tajfel and his followers most notably John C.
  Turner look at formation of group identity
  formation as a social process of categorization.
• This tradition of identity study begins with the
  concept of categorization. It refers to the
  cognitive process that allow human to streamline
  perception by separately grouping like and unlike
  stimuli. Tajfel demonstrated that people
  categorize social as well as nonsocial stimuli
  and that people use social categories to identify
  themselves and others. (Thoits and Virshup,
  1997 p. 114) Tajfel illustrate the concept with
  research focusing on race, ethnicity, class, and
  nationality and empirical examples of back and
  white, Jews, Pakistanis, and French- and English
  speaking Canadian.

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Theories of Identity Development

• Social identity and theory of categorization
• Accordingly, Tajfel defines social identity as
  that part of an individuals self which derives
  from his knowledge of his members of a group (or
  groups) together with the value and emotional
  significance attached to that membership.
  (Tajfel, 1981, quoted in Thoits and Virshup,
  1997 p. 116)
• Turner also defines social identity as
  self-categories that define the individual in
  terms of his or her shared similarities with
  members of certain social categories in contrast
  to other social categories. (Turner et al, 1987,
  quoted in Thoits and Virshup, 1997 p. 117)

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Theories of Identity Development

• Social identity and theory of categorization
• For Turner, social identities are in-group versus
  out-group categorizations. It spawns out of the
  distinction between the we-group and the
  they-group.
• This perspective has elevated the identity study
  from the individual level of role identity to the
  collective level of identity based on ethnicity,
  nationality, social class, and other social
  groupings. As a result, identity theory can apply
  to analyze macroscopic phenomena such as racial
  prejudice and discrimination, conflict between
  ethnic and national groupings, ethnocentrism, etc

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Theories of Identity in Late-Modernity

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Giddens defines self as reflexively understood
  by the person in terms of her or his biography.
  (Giddens 1991, p. 53)
• Identity, according to Giddens, indicates a
  persons sense of continuity across time and
  space. (ibid)

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Theories of Identity in Late-Modernity

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Self-identity, therefore, can be defined as a
  sense of continuity as interpreted reflexively
  by the agent. (ibid) More specifically, a person
  with a reasonably stable sense of self-identity
  is, therefore, the one with the capacity to keep
  a particular narrative going. The individuals
  biography, if she is to maintain regular
  interaction with others in the day-to-day world,
  cannot be wholly fictive. It must continually
  integrate events which occur in the external
  world, and sort them out into ongoing story
  about the self. (Giddens, 1991, p. 54) In short,
  self-identity can be discerned as coherent and
  continuous narrative one imputed to oneself.

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Theories of Identity in Late-Modernity

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Constituents of self-identity A stable
  self-identity, i.e. coherent and continuous self
  narrative, would compose the following attributes
• Ontological security A stable sense of
  self-identity presupposes the elements of
  ontological security - an acceptance of the
  things and of others. (ibid) The sense of
  ontological security implies that a person has to
  extend beyond self-reflexion and connects to her
  or his environments, both physical and social. In
  turn, it will generate both sense of trust and
  bondage with the physical and social
  environments.

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Theories of Identity in Late-Modernity

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Constituents of self-identity
• Trust Trust can be construed as the confidences
  and expectations that a person invested on
  particular relationships with social and physical
  environments. It is generally evolved from the
  positive feedbacks obtained by the person in the
  particular relationships.
• Bondage As the positive feedback generated from
  a relationship with a human aggregate
  accumulated, the person involved will develop
  strong sense of belonging to it and in turn
  constitute a social bondage. As a result, a
  social identity develops.

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Theories of Identity in Late-Modernity

• Ulrich Becks Theory of Individualization in Risk
  Society
• The process of individualization
• Modernization does not just lead to the
  formation of a centalized state power, to
  concentrations of capital and to an ever more
  tightly woven web of division of labor and market
  relationship, to mobility and mass consumption,
  and so on. It also leads to a triple
  individualization disembedding, removal from
  historically prescribed social forms and
  commitments in the sense of traditional contexts
  of dominance and support (the liberating
  dimension) the loss of traditional security
  with respect to practical knowledge, faith and
  guiding norms (the disenchantment dimension)
  and re-embedding, a new type of social
  commitment (the control or reintegration
  dimension). (Beck, 1992, p. 128)

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Theories of Identity in Late-Modernity
23
Theories of Identity in Late-Modernity

• Ulrich Becks Theory of Individualization in Risk
  Society
• The process of individualization
• Modernization does not just lead to the
  formation of a centalized state power, to
  concentrations of capital and to an ever more
  tightly woven web of division of labor and market
  relationship, to mobility and mass consumption,
  and so on. It also leads to a triple
  individualization disembedding, removal from
  historically prescribed social forms and
  commitments in the sense of traditional contexts
  of dominance and support (the liberating
  dimension) the loss of traditional security
  with respect to practical knowledge, faith and
  guiding norms (the disenchantment dimension)
  and re-embedding, a new type of social
  commitment (the control or reintegration
  dimension). (Beck, 1992, p. 128)

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Ulrich Becks Theory of Individualization

• The process of individualization
• Becks definition of individualization
  Individualization means, first, the
  disembedding and, second, the re-embedding of
  industrial society ways of life by new ones, in
  which the individuals must produce, stage and
  cobble together their biographies themselves.
  Thus the name individualization, disembedding
  and re-embedding do not occur by chance, nor
  individually, nor voluntarily, nor through
  diverse types of historical conditions, but
  rather all at once and under the general
  conditions of the welfare in developed industrial
  labour society, as they have developed since the
  1960s in many Western industrial countries.
  (Beck, 1994, p.13)

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Ulrich Becks Theory of Individualization

• The process of individualization
• Zygmunt Baumans definition of individualization
  Individualization consists of transforming
  human identity from a given into a task and
  changing the actors with the responsibility for
  performing that task and for the consequences
  (also the side-effects) of their performance.
  .Human being are no more born into their
  identities. Needing to become what one is the
  feature of modern living - and of this living
  alone. Modernity replaces the heteronomic
  determination of social standing with compulsive
  and obligatory self-determination. (Bauman,
  2000, p. 31-2)

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Ulrich Becks Theory of Individualization

• The process of individualization
• Institutionalized beds - identity bases - for
  the re-embedment of modern individuals
• Beds in capital market, e.g. occupations,
  professions, social-class positions, etc.
• Beds in institution of marriage and family,
  husband, wife, father, mother, etc.
• Beds in modern political arenas, e.g. citizens,
  members of new social movements, such as
  environmentalists, feminist, anti-gloabizationists
  , etc

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Ulrich Becks Theory of Individualization

• Individualization in Information Age
• What distinguished the individualization of
  yore from the form it has taken in risk society
  . No beds are furnished for re-embedding,
  and such beds as might be postulated and pursued
  prove fragile and often vanish before the work of
  re-embeddment is complete. There are rather
  musical chairs of various size and style as
  well as of changing numbers and positions, which
  prompt men and women to be constantly on the move
  and promise no fulfilment, no rest and no
  satisfaction of arriving, of rearching the
  final destination, where one can disarm, relax
  and stop worrying. (Bauman, 2000, p. 33-34)

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Ulrich Becks Theory of Individualization

• Individualization in Information Age
• The rise of networked individualism and
  cyber-balkanization
• Networked individualism is a social pattern,
  not a collection of isolated individuals. Rather,
  individuals build their networks, on-line and
  off-line, on the basis of their interests,
  values, affinities, and projects. (Castells,
  2001, p. 131)

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Social Identity in the Process of
Individualization

• The conception of Individualization of modern
  society
• 'Individualization' consists of transforming
  human identity from a given into a task and
  changing the actors with the responsibility for
  performing that task and for the consequences
  (also the side-effects) of their performance.
  .Human being are no more born into their
  identities. Needing to become what one is the
  feature of modern living - and of this living
  alone. Modernity replaces the heteronomic
  determination of social standing with compulsive
  and obligatory self-determination. (Bauman,
  2000, p. 32)

30
Social Identity in the Process of
Individualization

• The conception of Individualization of modern
  society
• individualization means, first, the disembedding
  and, second, the re-embedding of industrial
  society ways of life by new ones, in which the
  individuals must produce, stage and cobble
  together their biographies themselves. Thus the
  name individualization, disembedding and
  re-embedding do not occur by chance, nor
  individually, nor voluntarily, nor through
  diverse types of historical conditions, but
  rather all at once and under the general
  conditions of the welfare in developed industrial
  labour society, as they have developed since the
  1960s in many Western industrial countries.
  (Beck, 1994, p.13)

31
Social Identity in the Process of
Individualization

• The conception of Individualization of modern
  society
• Institutionalized beds - identity bases - for
  the re-embedment of modern individuals
• Beds in capital market, e.g. occupations,
  professions, social-class positions, etc.
• Beds in institution of marriage and family,
  husband, wife, father, mother, etc.
• Beds in modern political arenas, e.g. citizens,
  members of new social movements, such as
  environmentalists, feminist, anti-gloabizationists
  , etc.

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Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• What distinguished the individualization of
  yore from the form it has taken in risk society
  . No beds are furnished for re-embedding,
  and such beds as might be postulated and pursued
  prove fragile and often vanish before the work of
  em-rebeddment is complete. There are rather
  musical chairs of various size and style as
  well as of changing numbers and positions, which
  prompt men and women to be constantly on the move
  and promise no fulfilment, no rest and no
  satisfaction of arriving, of researching the
  final destination, where one can disarm, relax
  and stop worrying. (Bauman, 2000, p. 33-34)

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Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• Social identity crisis can therefore be conceived
  as a discontinuity between the stages of
  dis-embedment and re-embedment in the
  individualization process
• Fragmentation of institutional-beds and the
  flexiblization of modern identity Under the
  network logic and the global-information paradigm
• National-local identity replaced by global-mobile
  identity
• Affect-familial identity replaced by
  flexible-familial identity
• Permanent vocationalism and unionism replaced by
  flexible, self-programmed workers

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Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• The permeation of pure relation growth
• By pure relationship, according to Giddens, it is
  social relationship build purely on the
  relationships itself. It differs from traditional
  relationships which are based on institutional
  bondages, such as parent-child relationships, or
  based on institutional restraints, such as
  marriage and business contracts. Instead, pure
  relationship is not anchored in external
  conditions of social or economic life - it is
  free-floating. .The pure relationship is sought
  only for what the relationship can bring to the
  partners involved. (It) is reflexively
  organized, in open fashion, and on a continuous
  basis (Giddens, 1991, p. 89-91)

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Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• The permeation of pure relation growth
• Pure relationships are by definition double
  edged.
• They provide reflexive or even emancipatory
  chances for reconstituting traditional social
  relationship. They offer opportunity for the
  development of trust based on voluntary
  commitments and an intensified intimacy. (p.
  186)
• Yet pure relationship create enormous burdens
  for the integrity of the self. In so far as a
  relationship lacks external referents, it is
  morally mobilized only thorough authenticity.
  Shorn of external moral criteria, the pure
  relationship is vulnerable as a source of
  security at fateful moments and at other major
  life transitions. (p. 186-7)

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Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• The permeation of pure relation growth
• As a result, the story of the self can no longer
  be told in a continuous and coherent manner. In
  other words, the self-identity experiences sense
  of discontinuity and fragementation, i.e.
  ontological insecurity and extistential anxiety
  in Giddens terms.

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39
Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• The pilgrim as modern self Pilgrimage of
  entrepreneurs, tenured workers, citizens, civil
  soldiers, husband and wife, etc.
• Life strategy of postmodern self
• Strollers It signifies the life strategy and
  state of mind of strolling in shopping malls,
  finding oneself among strangers and being a
  stranger to them, taking in those strangers as
  surfaces. .Strolling means rehearsing human
  reality as a series of episodes, that is as
  events without past and without consequences. It
  also means rehearsing meeting as mis-meeting, as
  encounters without impacts. The stroller had all
  the pleasures of modern life without torments
  attached. (Bauman, 1996, p. 26-27)

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Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• Life strategy of postmodern self
• Vagabond It represents the life strategy and
  attitude of wondering aimlessly and without
  destination. It also signifies life strategy of
  unwilling to settle down, to be the native and
  rooted in the soil. It post the stance of
  strangers and being out of place to every place
  and everyone.
• Tourist It represents another life strategy of
  movers, who move on purpose. The purposes that
  tourists have in mind are fun, joy, excitement
  and most of all careless. One may say that what
  tourist buys, what he pays for, what he demands
  to be delivered is precisely the right not to
  be bothered, freedom from any but aesthetic
  spacing. (Bauman, 1996, p. 31)

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Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• Life strategy of postmodern self
• Player The players world is the world of
  risks, of intuition, of precaution-taking. Time
  in the world-as-play divides into a succession of
  games. (p. 31) In other words, players world is
  made up of fragments and episodes of calculated
  risk. Yet more importantly, player must make
  sure that no game leaves lasting consequences,
  the player must remember (and so must his/her
  partners and adversaruies), that this is but a
  game. The game allows no room for pity,
  compassion, commiseration or cooperation. (p.32)

42
Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• The rise of networked individualism and
  cyber-balkanization
• Networked individualism is a social pattern,
  not a collection of isolated individuals. Rather,
  individuals build their networks, on-line and
  off-line, on the basis of their interests,
  values, affinities, and projects. (Castells,
  2001, p. 131)

43
Social Identity Crisis under Pure Relation

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• The rise of networked individualism and
  cyber-balkanization
• Networked individualism is a social pattern,
  not a collection of isolated individuals. Rather,
  individuals build their networks, on-line and
  off-line, on the basis of their interests,
  values, affinities, and projects. (Castells,
  2001, p. 131)

44
Growing up in the Information Age

• The Hurried Child (Elkind, 1981) and Child
  without Childhood (Winn, 1984)
• By simplifying the access to information through
  TV and then PC and Internet, it opens children to
  experiences that were once reserved for adults,
  e.g. sex and violence
• By blurring the boundary between adults and
  children and revealing the secrecy of adults in
  electronic media, children are less deferential
  to adults authority and they become less likely
  to trust or respect simply because they are
  adults
• Growing up too fast too soon. (Elkind, 1981)
• Growing up too fast in the world of sex and
  drug. (Winn, 1984)

45
Growing up in the Information Age

• Disappearance of Childhood
• From literacy of printed materials to literacy of
  TV and then IT, the closure of adult world erodes
  and evaporates as the disclosure media of TV and
  then PC rise to dominance
• These result in the exposure of the backstage
  of adulthood in front of screens of TV and then
  PC (Meyrowitz, 1985) and the disappearance of
  children (Postman, 1983)
• Exposure of children to mass media (Sanders,
  1995) and unrestricted knowledge about things
  once kept secret from nonadults (Steinberg and
  Kinchloe, 1997) have caused the death of
  childhood and the loss of the literal selves of
  children
• The screenagers embrace discontinuity, turbulence
  and complexity. They have the natural adaptive
  skills that enable them to deal with the problem
  pf postmodernity. (Rushkoff, 1996)

46
Growing up in the Information Age

• The coming of the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998)
  and the screenagers (Rushkoff, 1996)
• The Net Generation have new powerful tools for
  inquiry, analysis, self-expression, influence,
  and play. They have unprecedented mobility. They
  are shrinking the planet in ways their parent
  could never imagine. Unlike television which was
  done to them, they are the actors in the digital
  world. (Tapscott, 1998, P.3)
• The psychological complex of the N-Generation
• Tolerance and acceptance of diversity On the
  Internet, nobody knows youre a dog. (p. 86)
• A curious generation The interactive world of
  the Internet elicits intensely heightened
  curiosity.
• Assertiveness and self-reliance They begin to
  develop self-reliance at an early age they can
  find what they need quickly, easily, and
  honestly (p.87) in the Internet.
• A contrarian generation Because they have
  master the tools to question, challenge, and
  disagree, these kids are becoming a generation of
  critical thinkers (p. 88) and not easily
  submitted to authority at face value.
• A generation of high self-esteem They acquire
  the capacities to act on the environment and to
  mastery in the computer-mediated working
  environment at early age. They enhance their self
  certainty. They also learn to establish their
  identity through a much enlarged social world
  through the Internet.
• Generation of multiple self and virtual self
• A generation of intelligent / multi-intelligent
  Jean Piaget argues that intelligence develops
  in all children through the continually shifting
  balance between the assimilation of new
  information into existing cognitive structure and
  the changing accommodation of those structures
  themselves to incorporate the new information.
  Internet and other computer-mediated environments
  provide ample opportunities of the kind.
• A generation of stronger spatial orientation
• A generation of divergent and multi-media thinking

47
Growing up in the Information Age

• The coming of the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998)
  and the screenagers (Rushkoff, 1996)
• The Net Generation have new powerful tools for
  inquiry, analysis, self-expression, influence,
  and play. They have unprecedented mobility. They
  are shrinking the planet in ways their parent
  could never imagine. Unlike television which was
  done to them, they are the actors in the digital
  world. (Tapscott, 1998, P.3)

48
Growing up in the Information Age

• The coming of the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998)
  and the screenagers (Rushkoff, 1996)
• The psychological complex of the N-Generation
• Tolerance and acceptance of diversity On the
  Internet, nobody knows youre a dog. (p. 86)
• A curious generation The interactive world of
  the Internet elicits intensely heightened
  curiosity.
• Assertiveness and self-reliance They begin to
  develop self-reliance at an early age they can
  find what they need quickly, easily, and
  honestly (p.87) in the Internet.
• A contrarian generation Because they have
  master the tools to question, challenge, and
  disagree, these kids are becoming a generation of
  critical thinkers (p. 88) and not easily
  submitted to authority at face value.

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Growing up in the Information Age

• The coming of the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998)
  and the screenagers (Rushkoff, 1996)
• The psychological complex of the N-Generation
• A generation of high self-esteem They acquire
  the capacities to act on the environment and to
  mastery in the computer-mediated working
  environment at early age. They enhance their self
  certainty. They also learn to establish their
  identity through a much enlarged social world
  through the Internet.
• Generation of multiple self and virtual self
• A generation of intelligent / multi-intelligent
  Jean Piaget argues that intelligence develops
  in all children through the continually shifting
  balance between the assimilation of new
  information into existing cognitive structure and
  the changing accommodation of those structures
  themselves to incorporate the new information.
  Internet and other computer-mediated environments
  provide ample opportunities of the kind.

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Growing up in the Information Age

• The coming of the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998)
  and the screenagers (Rushkoff, 1996)
• The psychological complex of the N-Generation
• A generation of stronger spatial orientation
• A generation of divergent and multi-media thinking

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Growing up in the Information Age

• The coming of the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998)
  and the screenagers (Rushkoff, 1996)
• The social complex of the N-generation
• The question of the social skills of the
  N-generation
• The question of the attention span of the
  N-generation
• The question of the predisposition to cruelty
• A generation of vanity
• The question of stressfulness of the N-generation

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Lecture 6 Understanding the Curriculum Content of
Liberal Studies I Self and identity in
post-traditional and individualized
society End