Browsing by Author "Niinistö, Sari"

In this candidate´s dissertation I examined the relationship of adult personality and transformative lear-ning with the help of an integrative literature review. In connetion with adult learning, too little consi-deration has been given to the personality changes of an individual. My study interest concentrated on finding connections between the concepts of personal learning process and personality, and clarifying the possibilities of developing one's self . My point of view is abstract and individualistic ,and my ap-proach is humanistic , personality psychological and adult educational. My material consisted of sources dealing with Dan McAdams' personality theory and Jack Mezirow's theory of transformative learning, as well as other adult educational, humanistic and personality psychological materials. In my review I also included the humanistic background philosophy of Me-zirow's theory and humanistic conception of man and learning. I dealt with personality using McA-dams' level theory, concentrating on the structure of personality and the all-inclusive narrative perso-nal life story. The connections of these theories became evident by analyzing the concepts. In Mezirow's theory per-sonality, identity and self image are considered flexible and the possibilities of learning strong despite external boundary conditions. Mezirow talks about changing the frames of reference through dialogue and by re-evaluting one's experiences. According to McAdams, there is a possibility of change even in adulthood when the narrative identity intertwines life experiences into stories and when life expe-riences are observed critically. On the basis of these theories even the challenges of life can be used as strenghts and the learning processes are connected to the development of one's personal identity. Every adult has the opportunity to learn to reform. In the course of the learning process individual objectives and frames of reference come more clearly to the levels of conciousness. According to the humanistic view , personality also develops in adulthood and according to my interpretation, these changes take place through transformation. The new significances of life experiences help the indiviual to direct his choices in formal connections in addition to the intrapersonal changes.