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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

Statement in the media on 14 January 2016 by national student structures about national student protests

2016-01-15

The University of the Free State takes cognisance of the decision by national student structures on 14 January 2016 that protests should stop and students return to studies. Here are selections from a transcription of the press conference, followed by a link to the full and complete transcript:

“The PYA calls for Back to School... The Progressive Youth Alliance, Sasco, YCL, ANC Youth League, call upon students from all walks of life to use the systems provided by government and not delay their future any longer unnecessarily. There is no reason at all for strikes to continue when people's government has addressed the main immediate concerns of students...

“Members of PYA, Sasco, ANC Youth League, and the Young Communist League, and all progressive forces, should defend the interests and gains of students who marched genuinely for FeesMustFall last year. They must make sure that students are on the concession provided by government and go back to class and wait for the report from the commission [on free higher education recently established by President Zuma]...

“Students should be decisive and reject dark forces that seek to delay them further, and students should play their part by ensuring that they focus on their academic studies, and take the opportunity provided through this additional loans and bursaries to successfully complete their studies...

“Students can no longer delay their studies. They must be allowed to write their examinations - those who did not write last year - and those who need to register, must register and go back to class. We will regroup ten months into the year when the report of free higher education has been released, to consider its content...

“Fees have indeed fallen, access must rise, and all students must go back to school.”

Link to complete transcript: http://ow.ly/X5ViR

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