'As Judged By Themselves': Transformative Experiences and Endogenous Preferences

This chapter explores the ways individuals account for cognitive migrations—significant changes of mind and consciousness that are often expressed as powerful discoveries, transformative experiences, and newly embraced worldviews. It outlines three ideal typical forms of cognitive migration: awakenings, self-actualizations, and ongoing quests. Building on prior approaches to such personal transformations, it develops the notion of cognitive migration to argue the following set of interrelated points. First, cognitive migrations take autobiographical form, which is to say they manifest as the narrative identity work of individuals who undergo them. Second, such narrative identity work provides a reflexive foundation for an individual’s understanding of self and identity in relation to other possible selves and identities—for seeing oneself as a relationally situated character. Third, individuals who articulate cognitive migrations use the plot structure and cultural coding at the root of their narratives to express their allegiance to a new sociomental community. They thereby take on new cognitive norms and identity-defining conventions while rejecting potential alternatives, locating themselves within a broader sociomental field. The spatial metaphor of cognitive migrations draws explicit attention to the broader sociomental field in which such radical changes of mind take place. Finally, such narrative identity work links self-understandings to the often-contested meanings of broadly relevant issues, events, and experiences; when individuals account for their cognitive migrations, they also advance claims that reach well-beyond their personal lives.

Transformative Learning in Mastery-Oriented CS0 Course

Higher Education for the Future ◽

10.1177/23476311211007255 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 234763112110072

Author(s):

Srinivasan Lakshminarayanan ◽

N. J. Rao ◽

G. K. Meghana

Keyword(s):

Transformative Learning ◽

First Year ◽

Guided Discovery ◽

Engineering Programs ◽

Transformative Experiences ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Cognitive Levels ◽

Almost All ◽

Core Course

The introductory programming course, commonly known as CS1 and offered as a core course in the first year in all engineering programs in India, is unique because it can address higher cognitive levels, metacognition and some aspects of the affective domain. It can provide much needed transformative experiences to students coming from a system of school education that is dominantly performance-driven. Unfortunately, the CS1 course, as practiced in almost all engineering programs, is also performance-driven because of a variety of compulsions. This paper suggests that the inclusion of a course CS0 can bring about transformative learning that can potentially make a significant difference in the quality of learning in all subsequent engineering courses. The suggested instruction design of this course takes the advantage of the unique features of a course in programming. The proposed CS0 course uses “extreme apprenticeship” and “guided discovery” methods of instruction. The effectiveness of these instruction methods was established through the use of the thematic analysis, a well-known qualitative research method, and the associated coding of transformative learning experiences and instruction components.

Youth Experiences in Authoring Action: The Impact of an Arts-Based Youth Program on Youth Development

Journal of Adolescent Research ◽

10.1177/07435584211006787 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 074355842110067

Author(s):

Parissa J. Ballard ◽

Grace Anderson ◽

Danielle Parker Moore ◽

Stephanie S. Daniel

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Leadership Education ◽

Summer Program ◽

Youth Of Color ◽

Media Arts ◽

Program Leaders ◽

Transformative Experiences ◽

Film Making ◽

The Impact

Authoring Action (A2) is a youth-focused, arts-based, afterschool and summer program. A2’s mission is “to transform the lives of youth and the world through the power of creative writing, spoken word, visual and media arts, film-making and leadership education that promotes positive systemic change.” Using in-depth interviews, this study aimed to understand how this arts-based program affects youth development. Participants in this study (N=36) were alums of Authoring Action (A2), interviewed when they were between the ages of 17-32. Over half identified as female (N=21). Most A2 participants were youth of color and participated in A2 between ages 13-17. Interview data were coded following several steps: generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and generating a report. Four themes describe the impacts of A2 for program participants: communication, cathartic and transformative experiences, connection, and critical consciousness. Programmatic features—getting paid to participate, shared group identity, and open access to program leaders and peers – were meaningful to youth participants. The mission and programmatic features of A2 support youth development; we discuss practices that may benefit other arts-based youth programs and the implications of such practices for youth development.

Unchosen transformative experiences and the experience of agency

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences ◽

10.1007/s11097-021-09753-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jelena Markovic

Keyword(s):

Transformative Experiences

Teaching for Transformative Experiences and Conceptual Change: A Case Study and Evaluation of a High School Biology Teacher's Experience

Cognition and Instruction ◽

10.1080/07370008.2010.490496 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 273-316 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Kevin J. Pugh ◽

Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia ◽

Kristin L. K. Koskey ◽

Victoria C. Stewart ◽

Christine Manzey

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Conceptual Change ◽

High School Biology ◽

Transformative Experiences

Endogenous Preferences and Embeddedness: A Reappraisal of Karl Polanyi

Journal of Economic Issues ◽

10.1080/00213624.2004.11506671 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

pp. 189-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

João Rodrigues

Keyword(s):

Karl Polanyi ◽

Endogenous Preferences

Endogenous Preferences and Social-Dilemma Institutions

Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics JITE ◽

10.1628/093245606779252742 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 162 (4) ◽

pp. 627 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Anders Poulsen ◽

Odile Poulsen

Keyword(s):

Social Dilemma ◽

Endogenous Preferences

Understanding attendees’ transformative experiences following Tony Robbins’s Unleash the Power Within seminars

Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology ◽

10.53074/cstp.2021.26 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 47-59

Author(s):

Sue Bradley

Keyword(s):

Personal Development ◽

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Sense Of Self ◽

Phenomenological Analysis ◽

American Life ◽

Transformative Experiences

Tony Robbins is an American life coach and entrepreneur who claims his motivational workshop, Unleash the Power Within (UPW) can transform people’s lives. This article is based on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of eight participants who had attended different UPW seminars and explored their experiences of transformation. Eight themes were identified: (1) a change in their sense of self, (2) the development of new skills, (3) changes in lifestyle, (4) transformation/conversion, (5) changes in relationships, (6) permanency of change, (7) feelings of fear versus anticipation and (8) loss versus gain. The research concluded that participants had undergone transformation involving significant, valued and enduring changes centred on new meaning in their lives. Further research was suggested to examine both a wider and more in-depth approach, as personal development workshops offer a large and potentially rich field of transpersonal study focused on human meaning-making and change.