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Emerging Adults in Search of Self

26 September 2022 | Story Michelle Nöthling | Photo Stephen Collett

Prof Luzelle Naude — Prof Luzelle Naudé, Professor in the Department of Psychology, delivered her inaugural lecture on the topic: In Search of Self: Emerging Adults as Actors, Agents and Authors.

How do people endeavour to answer the question: Who am I? This is the central question that Prof Luzelle Naudé – professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Free State (UFS), has built her academic career on. Under the title of her inaugural lecture, In Search of Self: Emerging Adults as Actors, Agents and Authors, delivered on14 September 2022, Prof Naudé traced the arc of her academic career over the past three decades.

Development as a Scholar

Prof Naudé started by giving an overview of her research as an early scholar, investigating students’ learning experiences and predictors of student success, followed by an exploration of the adolescence stage within the context of South Africa. Prof Naudé’s research interest then led her to investigating the third decade of life: emerging adulthood.

Interestingly, from the turn of the century, the group of 18- to 25-year-olds take longer to transition into adulthood. This group finds themselves in an in-between space, “not being an adolescent anymore, but definitely not being an adult either,” Prof Naudé explained. This has sparked an interesting scholarly debate: is emerging adulthood indeed a new developmental stage, or is it something only applicable to a minority of Western, affluent middle-class, university students? The answer is the former. There are actually many emerging adulthoods – also among our South African youth.

Current Research Focus

Currently, Prof Naudé is interested in the narratives of emerging adults at the intersection of self and society. The self, she pointed out, unfolds through different layers, namely the actor, the agent, and the author. “Our South African emerging adults are acting in an increasingly complex and transitioning social world. As agents, they advance through this complexity by telling redemptive stories of generativity, upward mobility, and of liberation. And as authors, they reconstruct their past, present, and future into a coherent life story and a narrative identity,” Prof Naudé said.

Naude Inaugural From the left; Dr Edwin du Plessis, Head of Department of Psychology; Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of The Humanities; Prof Luzelle Naudé , and Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research and Internationalisation. Photo: Stephen Collett.

The Way Forward

“I’ve became convinced,” Prof Naudé emphasised, “about South Africa and the Global South’s ability to contribute to global knowledge production.” Prof Naudé and her team are therefore adding a South African voice to several multicultural, multinational projects, including the African Long-Life Study – in collaboration with the University of Zurich – and the Selves within Selves project. Prof Naudé’s vision, however, is to ultimately establish an Identity Research Hub at the UFS to consolidate research activities in this field and to formalise interdisciplinary partnerships.

Watch recording video below:

News Archive

Media: Moshoeshoe-lesing waardevol

2006-05-29

Hoofartikel
29 Mei 2006

Waardevolle lesing

DIE eerste koning Moshoeshoe-gedenklesing van die Universiteit van die Vrystaat het sommer met die intrapslag prikkelende gedagtes opgelewer en wys dat dit ’n paslike en nuttige manier is om ook die bydraes van swart leiers in Afrika te eer.

Terselfdertyd verskaf die eerste gedenklesing wat deur prof. Njabulo Ndebele, vise-kanselier van die Universiteit van Kaapstad gelewer is, diep stof tot nadenke en debat.

Die gedenklesing kom juis terwyl al hoe meer wenkbroue gelig word oor die skepping van ’n ander forum, die Native Club, waarvan wit Afrikane uitgesluit word.

Dis die geesteskind van mnr. Titus Mafolo, politieke raadgewer van pres. Thabo Mbeki, en die doel daarvan is om ’n forum te verskaf vir Afrika-intelligentsia.

In teenstelling met die ras-eksklusiewe Native Club wat ’n ongelukkige teruggryp is na rasgegronde instellings onder die apartheidsbewind, het prof. Ndebele in die gees van die inklusiewe leierskap van koning Moshoeshoe van Lesotho die gedenklesing opgedra aan al dié mense in Suid-Afrika en elders wat die moed het om hul oorwoë mening uit te druk oor belangrike sake wat die samelewing in die gestig staar.

Hy het tereg bygevoeg dié lesing kom op ’n kritieke punt in Suid-Afrika se nuwe demokrasie.
Prof. Ndebele het daarop gewys dat koning Moshoeshoe – Lesotho het onder sy leierskap mense van verskeie dele van die subkontinent gelok – kon bewys dat verskeidenheid ’n bindende eienskap kan wees.
Jy bereik die grootste eenheid tussen onderskeidende entiteite waar jy relatief vrye ruimte aan hulle gee om hul eiesoortige kenmerke na vore te bring.

Prof. Ndebele het ook opgemerk ’n toenemende aantal hoogs intelligente, sensitiewe en toegewyde Suid-Afrikaners oor die klas-, ras- en kulturele spektrum heen, bely dat hulle soos nooit tevore nie, onseker en kwesbaar voel sedert 1994.

Hierdie koerant spreek ter aansluiting hierby die wens uit dat die ANC-regeringsalliansie sal toesien dat wie ook al die leiding vorentoe in dié alliansie oorneem, ook daardie saambindende eienskappe moet besit wat koning Moshoeshoe gehad het. En wat hy gebruik het om sy land uit te bou en te verenig.

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