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Personal Development

Personal development refers to all activities proposed to develop a self-awareness , to work towards a better quality of life, and the realization of their aspirations and dreams . Psychoanalysts, proponents of techniques New Age and some of the current coaching make proposals for personal development for individuals, while educators and specialists working as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), include in the goals institutions of higher education and decent work .

Summary

Objectives

Personal development, sometimes called "personal development" or "personal growth" (in Quebec ) covers a disparate set of practices aimed at developing positive aspects, known or unknown, personality or achieve a certain wisdom.

Origins

According to its proponents, the questions of the meaning of life posed by philosophy and religion are the source of personal development and that would answer these questions.

Aristotle and the Western tradition

Theories of personal development of the West were heavily influenced by the Greek philosopher Aristotle . His concept of "Good Life" encourages the individual to develop his virtues (arete) to reach the "eudaimonia", which is commonly translated as "happiness" but should be more properly understood as "the good be "or" live well " . Aristotle continues to influence the Western concept of personal development today especially through the economic concept of human capital or the principles of positive psychology . Most current theories of human development and positive psychology implicitly refer to Eudaemonism Aristotelian philosophical movement which posits that happiness is to be or know the purpose of human life.

Confucius and the tradition of East Asia

In the Eastern tradition, Confucius (551-479 BC.) is the founder of a philosophical school of thought whose ideas continue to influence family values, education and management in China and in most Asian countries today :

"The Sage-King of ancient times, wanting to spread its power in the world began with good govern his kingdom.

Wishing well govern his kingdom, he began by granting his family.
Desiring his family, he began by reforming himself.
Desiring to reform himself, he began by correcting his heart.
Wishing to rectify his heart, he began by purifying his desires.
Desiring to purify our desires, it began with their knowledge.

Deepen its knowledge, is sounding things. "

There are cultural differences between China and Occcident in the way employees see their leaders in what they expect and what the leaders expect. In addition, there are fundamental differences in the Chinese way of living compared to the West. Cherished Western values can sometimes be viewed with disdain by the Chinese. The Personal Development in Psychology

It is mainly the work of Alfred Adler (1870-1937) and Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) that were associated with personal development, which did not exist in their time.

Alfred Adler refused to limit psychology to its therapeutic role in pushing the idea that human aspirations are forward looking and not just the result of drivers unaware or childhood experiences. Founder of individual psychology, it is also the origin of the concept of "lifestyle" which he defines as a personal approach to life, where everyone is building a self-image and his way of dealing with problems . This concept has influenced the management which has resulted in finding a balance between work and personal life.

Most concepts of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung were recovered by modern theories of personal development, such as synchronicity , and archetypes , the collective unconscious , his vision of a dream and especially the central concept in his theory of " individuation. " Individuation means the process by which an individual becomes a whole , according to the archetype of the Self. For Carl Gustav Jung, individuation is a process of psychological differentiation, intended to harmonize the relationship of the conscious with the unconscious and the purpose of developing the personality of the individual . Jung's contributions have fueled primarily the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of inspiration (PIP) and theories managerial (especially its typess pychologiques with the MBTI ) leading to personal development, or to the followers of Jung officials, many of these works have been misunderstood. According to sociologist Luc Mazenc "the impact of Jung's thought on the dynamics of emergence of New Age is essential" .

The concept of life stages has been developed in the 1970s by researcher Daniel Levinson (1920-1994) in a psycho-sociological perspective. Although sociologists have described the stages of review by Levinson , its main contribution to research in personal development is the influence in the career aspirations of young adult, he called the "Dream" :

"Whatever the nature of his dream, the young man with the task of developing it by giving it greater clarity and finding ways to vivre.Il is a big difference in development between a structure and consistent life imbued Dream or to contradict him. If the Dream remains disconnected from his life, he can simply disappear and with it the feeling of living and having a goal. "

To return to the psychological research on personal development, Albert Bandura (born 1925) has undertaken research to understand how some people more than others, were to achieve their goals . He showed confidence in his own success is one factor that best explains why individuals with the same level of knowledge and skills have such different results. According to Bandura, self-confidence is a powerful indication of success because:

  • it can accept success when it happens;
  • It facilitates risk-taking through high goals;
  • She urges him to keep trying if it does not reach the goal the first time;
  • it helps control his emotions and fears when the path to success is difficult.

In 1998, development staff increased from the periphery of psychology to a central position, when Martin Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association and proposed a new angle of view on healthy individuals rather than pathology :

"We found that there is a set of human powers which are the best defenses against mental illness: courage, optimism, interpersonal skills, work ethic, hope, honesty and perseverance. To prevent mental illness we will create a science of human strength whose mission will be to promote these virtues in the youth. "

Personal Development in the Era "New Age" (1920-2000)

On the therapeutic techniques classified under the term " New Age "have a link with personal development. The inspiration goes back to the 1920s with theosophy (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky), but especially in the 1960s that American author Marilyn Ferguson in the L theorize conspiracy of Aquarius. Thus, at the Esalen Institute (California) new technologies "New Age" have been experimented: the primal scream of Arthur Janov , the Rebirth, Rolfing with Ida Rolf , and bioenergetics analysis of Alexander Lowen , Gestalt Therapy of Fritz Perls .

To develop his personality, experience, New Age has yielded to the public, discreetly through small groups and then into a lucrative market of personal development general public a range of techniques inspired multiples thereof of the East and the West, dealing with the body as of the mind as a mediator of self-control.

Development staff in management

The first to introduce personal development in the professional sphere is Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). He proposed a hierarchy of needs represented as a pyramid, with the summit, self-fulfillment, defined as the desire to become more and more what one is and what is to become fully able become .

Maslow was convinced that only a tiny proportion of men had reached the threshold of self-fulfillment - he estimated the figure to 1% . His vision of a hierarchy of needs has been the unfortunate consequence that the stadium "superior" personal development has been considered only for those who were at the top of the pyramid of the organization, while the needs of the mass of employees did not seem to move beyond job security and good working conditions.

Then, as organizations and labor markets are globalizing, the responsibility for developing people slipping gradually from the company to the individual. In 1999, the manager thinker Peter Drucker notes in the Harvard Business Review :

"We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: If you have the ambition and intelligence, you can climb to the top of your chosen profession, whatever your starting point. But with this opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today no longer manage the careers of their employees; knowledge workers must effectively become their own CEO. It's up to you to carve out a place to know when it's time to change course and to stay engaged and productive during a working life that lasts fifty years. "

Professors in Management, Sumantra Ghoshal of London Business School, and Christopher Bartlett of Harvard Business School, wrote on their side in 1997 that companies must manage their individual employees and establish a new labor contract .

  • On the one hand, the company must recognize that personal development creates value "market performance does not stem from the omnipotent wisdom of the leaders but the initiative, creativity and skills of all employees. "
  • On the other hand, employees must recognize that their work includes a full notion of personal development and well "embraces the living force of continuous learning and personal development. "

Now, career opportunities have changed. It is less about climbing the corporate hierarchy to ensure that personal development along with their professional development. Research shows that women's careers follow specific stages of development and value differently the success of a career . Herminia Ibarra shows that career changes include a change of professional identity .

The personal development programs of companies can be divided into two categories: programs to motivate employees and create good working conditions, on the one hand, and strategic investment in personal development to improve human capital on the other hand.

  • When it comes to action plans for employees, the goal is to maximize satisfaction, motivation and loyalty of the latter. Questionnaires can help companies identify needs for personal development, individual preferences and recurring problems, so to implement specific programs. Most common in this category relate to the control of the relationship between personal and professional life, on time management and stress, health, or communication. Many of these programs offer activities that employees would have to pay out of the sphere of corporate yoga, sports, martial arts, NLP ...
  • Strategic programs for personal development are intended to increase human capital or increase productivity, innovation and individual qualities . They do not appear as a cost to motivate staff, but as an investment, the results depend directly on strategic development objectives of the company. Access to these programs is by selection based on potential employees, most often as part of a plan for talent management, and to those new hires, employees with high potential, key employees , team sales, research and development, and future managers. Other programs are more general and accessible to most or all employees. You can find here training for career development, personal effectiveness, teamwork and skills development. Personal development is also part of management tools: Creating a personal development plan with his manager, evaluation of its capabilities using a grid of jurisdiction, or obtaining feedback from a questionnaire filled out by colleagues different levels in the organization .

Critical review of the approach

Defiance of the concept in France

The exact meaning of "personal development" is poorly defined and varies from one culture to another. In France it is sometimes the object of some suspicion by academics , the media and government who believe that its methods can be nebulous or even dangerous, drawing on spirituality, psychology New Age "and pseudo-science without scientific basis. His promises of happiness are likely to abuse the vulnerability of certain individuals to present a danger to health groups and sects such as Scientology has been accused of using staff development training for new recruits.

A measure often egocentric and random personal development

At any level of development - economic, political, biological, organizational or personal - a reference structure is needed to determine whether improvement has taken place. This is also true for personal development.

The primary source of assessment improvement is the individual who feels himself under self-assessment tests have progressed or be moved to a new stage of development of his personality.

External references are necessary to validate the actual development. These references include achieving the development objective sought, the feasibility of strategies or action plans to achieve these objectives, measurement and evaluation of progress, achievement levels or steps throughout the trajectory of development, and correction actions in relation to feedback to get back on track. Without an external third party neutral and a proven approach, manipulation is always possible.

A booming economy of personal development

Personal development is an economic activity that unfolds along two axes: service to individuals and service institutions.

  • The service for individuals covers the production of specialized books, the motivational seminars, programs for e-learning, workshops, individual assistance, coaching and techniques such as yoga, martial arts, meditation or programs fitness. Without being able to measure this complex market, it seems to be increasing .
  • The service market is open to institutions with tens of millions of students in higher education and hundreds of millions of employees in enterprises, in the form of psychological testing, training, employee development programs, balance of career and skills, self-assessments, feedback, coaching, sponsorship, mentoring.

Some consulting firms specialize in personal development , but companies generalist human resources, recruitment and organizational strategy have recently entered this growing market, not to mention many smaller organizations and professionals providing independent consulting, training and coaching .

Bibliography

  • Bob Aubrey, the company itself, Flammarion, 2000 ( ISBN 978-2-0821-2543-7 )
  • Christopher Andrew, "Development staff. The Pursuit of Happyness, Humanities, Special Issue No. 7, September-October 2008, p. 72-73
  • Lionel Bellenger Pigallet and Philippe (ed.), Dictionary of training and personal development, ESF, 1996, 335 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7101-1193-1 )
  • Valrie Brunel, Managers of the soul. Personal development in business, new practice of power?, La Dcouverte, 2004, 192 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7071-4386-0 )
  • Jean-Christophe Durieux and Hannah Besser, Personal and Professional Development: to develop overnight, 2006, 223 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7101-1759-9 )
  • Robert Ebguy, I hate personal development, Eyrolles, 2008, 209 p. ( ISBN 978-2-2125-4217-2 )
  • Michel Lacroix, Personal development (foreword by Christopher Andrew), Flammarion, 2004, 158 p. ( ISBN 978-2-0821-0294-0 )
  • Marc Edmond, Handbook of psychotherapy: approach, techniques, founder, places, Paris, 2000 (1st ed. 1981), new edition 2008 ( ISBN 978-2-7256-2714-4 ).
  • Pierre Philippot, "Pathways to personal change," Humanities, Special issue No. 40, March-April-May 2003
  • Romilla Ready, Kate Burton, Rob Wilson and Rhena Branch, The Personal Development for Dummies, First, 2008, 649 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7540-0865-5 )

References

  1. Romilla Ready, Kate Burton, Rob Wilson and Rhena Branch, The Personal Development for Dummies, First, 2008, 649 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7540-0865-5 )
  2. Michel Lacroix, Personal development, preface by Christopher Andrew, Flammarion, 2004, 158 p. ( ISBN 978-2-0821-0294-0 )
  3. Bob Aubrey, the company itself, Flammarion, 2000 ( ISBN 978-2-0821-2543-7 )
  4. "The concept of decent work sums up the aspirations of all workers: ability to perform productive work and decent wage, with conditions of safety in the workplace and social protection for his family. Decent work provides individuals the opportunity to grow and integrate into society, and freedom to express their concerns, organize and take part in decisions that affect their lives. It assumes an equality of opportunity and treatment for women and men "- Topics: Decent Work - International Labour Organisation (ILO)
  5. See especially Nicomachean Ethics, the great book on the ethics of Aristotle.
  6. Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, Cambridge University Press, pages 1-6
  7. The Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen, brings the economic development of the Aristotelian concept of individual development, in a book written with Martha: The Quality of Life, Clarendon Press, 1993. He repeats this idea in his major work, written a year after receiving his Nobel Prize, Development as Freedom, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999.
  8. Martin Seligman explicitly compares the goals of positive psychology with the Aristotelian idea of the Good Life and Well-Being, in his book Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment, New York, Free Press (2002). The same author, one can read in French: The Force of optimism, Martin Seligman (Author), Jacques Lecomte (Foreword), Larry Cohen (Translator), The Free Press, 2008.
  9. Martin Hasse, The Great Learning, Cerf 1984 ( ISBN 2-2040-2281-0 ). (en) (zh) The Great Learning - Internet version presented by the Association of Teachers of Chinese
  10. Heinz Ansbacher and Rowena R. Ansbacher: Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, Basic Books, 1956. See especially chapter 3: "Finalism and Fiction," and Chapter 7: "The Style of Life."
  11. The analysis method of word play dream, called " bird language "in particular has been the subject of courses and seminars for personal development.
  12. See especially CG Jung, Psychological Types, Editions Georg, 1977.
  13. About Luke Mazenc that supported a thesis in sociology at the University Pierre Mendes-France Grenoble II in 2001: New Religious Movements (NRM) and new social movements (NSM) in the process of globalization. For a phenomenology sociological changes of modernity. About reproduced in its letter of January 2nd, 2005 Courier Readers' Nouvel Observateur following the publication of the dossier: "Psych Drugs or how to choose? Of heading No 2093.
  14. Gail Sheehy, New Passages, Random House, 1995. Gail Sheehy has written an earlier best seller, Passages, popularizing the stages of life Levinson, his second book shows how society and life stages have changed dramatically.
  15. Daniel Levinson, Seasons of a Man's Life, Ballantine Press, 1978, p. 91-92
  16. Albert Bandura, Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control, WH Freeman, 1998. Translated into French under the title: Self-efficacy: The self-efficacy, Albert Bandura (Author), Philippe Carre (Foreword), Jacques Lecomte (translation), De Boek, 2007
  17. Martin Seligman, Building Human Strength: Psychology's Forgotten Mission, Volume 29, Number 1 - January 1998
  18. Marc Edmond, Handbook of psychotherapy: approach, techniques, founder, places, Paris, 2000 (1st ed. 1981), new edition 2008 ( ISBN 978-2-7256-2714-4 )
  19. A Theory of Human Motivation, Abraham Maslow, was originally published in 1943 in Psychological Review, No. 50, p. 838. French, see: Jacques Lecomte, theories of motivation, Social Studies, Special issue No. 19 - December 1997/January 1998.
  20. Maslow, AH (2004). The completion of the self: From motivation to wholeness, Abraham Maslow (Author), Emily Borgeaud (Translator), Editions d'Organisation, 2004.
  21. Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself, Best of HBR, 1999. The best papers of the author in French: Become a Manager!, Translation Jacques Fontaine, Global Village 2006
  22. Sumantra Ghoshal, Christopher A. Bartlett, The Individualized Corporation: A Fundamentally New Approach to Management, HarperCollins, 1997, page 286
  23. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, Harvard Business School Press, 2007. This book shows how women are changing the traditional career path and how companies are adapting to these new profiles, for both men and women.
  24. Herminia Ibarra, Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, Harvard Business School Press, Chapter 2, 2003. The author discusses the idea that a career change based on personal development may establish a new professional identity.
  25. Lionel Bellenger Pigallet and Philippe (ed.), Dictionary of training and personal development, ESF, 1996, 335 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7101-1193-1 )
  26. A 1998 study from consulting firm Watson Wyatt (now Towers Watson), has questioned the value of 360 degree evaluations as a tool to increase value creation for shareholders. But its conclusions were subsequently challenged and the tool is become common in managerial practices.
  27. Robert Ebguy , I hate personal development, Eyrolles, 2008, 209 p. ( ISBN 978-2-2125-4217-2 )
  28. Spirit May 2004, Pierre-Henri Castel argues that the books on personal development account for 10% of the market, without showing any research or references to justify how he arrived at that figure.
  29. The international consulting firms specializing in personal development for businesses PDI, DDI, and Franklin Covey Metizo.
  30. The personal development company is now part of the human resources consulting with firms such as Hewitt, Mercer, Towers Watson and Hay offering advice or talent development is through the lavished training aimed at improving the skills of behavioral employees. The firms business strategy as McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group are studying at the executive level. The temporary employment agencies like Manpower and Adecco offer courses on employee motivation and career development. Firms recruiting executives such as Korn Ferry offers coaching for managers


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