This document provides operational definitions and conceptual frameworks for studying personal development through structured writing groups. It defines personal development as the perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in behaviors, cognition, emotions, coping abilities, and communication skills. It discusses concepts like sense of coherence, zones of proximal development, generative learning, and how structured writing and group interactions can stimulate flexibility within coherence and promote personal development.

1. Personal Development
in
Structured
Writing Groups
of adults
from a general,
non-clinical
population
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2. Personal Development,
what is it in this study?
operational definition
2Tuesday, 16 July 13

3. Personal Development,
what is it in this study?
operational definition
Perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in
2Tuesday, 16 July 13

4. Personal Development,
what is it in this study?
operational definition
Perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in
behaviour,
2Tuesday, 16 July 13

5. Personal Development,
what is it in this study?
operational definition
Perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in
behaviour,
cognition,
2Tuesday, 16 July 13

6. Personal Development,
what is it in this study?
operational definition
Perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in
behaviour,
cognition,
emotion,
2Tuesday, 16 July 13

7. Personal Development,
what is it in this study?
operational definition
Perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in
behaviour,
cognition,
emotion,
coping,
2Tuesday, 16 July 13

8. Personal Development,
what is it in this study?
operational definition
Perceivable change towards lasting flexibility in
behaviour,
cognition,
emotion,
coping,
intra- and interpersonal communication
2Tuesday, 16 July 13

9. my metaphor
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10. Personal Development
is the container for all concepts:
the contour of the tree
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11. A flexible tree is resilient, it can
grow in various ways
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12. Rigid trees are vulnerable
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13. parts observed for changing
flexibility
emotion
cognition
coping
communication
behaviour
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14. Sense of Coherence
What holds the ‘tree’ together is
the core self image
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15. A high Sense of Coherence means
You can make sense of the world you live in.
You feel that you can cope with what you encounter.
Your life feels meaningful.
SoC concept and scale developed by Aaron Antonovsky, 1979, 1987
cross-culturally validated to correlate with healthy ageing
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16. Vectors of development over time
going from
younger to older age
static to moving
rigid to supple
fixed to permeable, adaptive boundaries
vulnerable to resilient, resourceful
none or few to more options/choices
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17. more vectors of development going
from
Lower to higher feeling of agency
More dependence to more autonomy
Isolation to connectedness:
external (with others) and internal (with aspects of self)
other vectors are conceivable
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18. Learning
What is known What is not known
Zone of Proximal Development
with ‘more knowledgeable others’ = older people
= society’s impact on education
In adult groups
everyone can be more knowledgeable to another in some way
concepts taken from Lev Vygotsky, 1978
Model for cognitive learning in children
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19. Learning in writing groups is:
cognitive: skills of communication
with others and with self
AND
affective: how to be safe with others
Feeling safe enhances openness to learning
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20. • Generative Learning is a logical model of levels:
each level is of a different logical type, a higher
abstraction, than the members it classifies
Personal Development is a form of
Generative Learning
concepts developed by Gregory Bateson, 1964
A change in the frame of reference,
a shift to higher-order thinking, creates ever more
changes
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21. How Generative Learning
connects to the other concepts
• To reach a ‘higher’ level - ‘meta’ to the one below - a process
of increasing openness and integration of learning is
necessary
• Learning requires Openness, which is a prerequisite for
flexibility as defined in this study
• Integration of learning means fitting new information to the
existing coherent structure of the self
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22. System-dynamic process of personal
development by writing in a group
• structured writing exercises and group interaction stimulate
flexibility bound by coherence
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