Saskia Kunnen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Saskia Kunnen

Journal of Transformative Education, 2018

This case study investigates the transformative learning process and outcomes of a female master'... more This case study investigates the transformative learning process and outcomes of a female master's student in a semester-long counseling skills training course based on experiential learning. The data included the student's longitudinal accounts (11 questionnaires on the emotions experienced in every session and three blog posts) and retrospective accounts (a final reflective written activity and an interview) of her experience in the course. Through a thematic holistic analysis, we identified (1) five phases in the student's learning process, which illustrated her evolving meaning-making of the challenging demands and related changes in her emotional experience and (2) two learning outcomes, including the student's insights into the meaning of learning and her increasing self-awareness. The findings are discussed with an emphasis on the value of tracking learners' emotional experience to understand their transformative changes, the contribution of experiential approaches

The current article proposes a theoretical model of self-esteem called the Self-Organizing Self-E... more The current article proposes a theoretical model of self-esteem called the Self-Organizing Self-Esteem (SOSE) model. The model provides an integrative framework for conceptualizing and understanding the intrinsic dynamics of self-esteem and the role of the context across 3 levels of development: The macro level, which is the level of trait self-esteem, the meso level, on which we find state self-esteem, and the micro level, which is the level of discrete self experiences. The model applies principles from the complex dynamics systems perspective to self-esteem, and can thus uniquely describe the underlying mechanism of self-esteem development based on self-organizational processes and interacting time scales. We compare the proposed SOSE model with a formalized account of the traditional approach to self-esteem, showing that the SOSE model is especially conducive to the understanding of self-esteem development in a way that the traditional approach is not—namely, in its ability to explain and predict the underlying dynamics of trait and state self-esteem, the meaning of variability, and the role of the context.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2017

This study adopts a dynamic systems approach to investigate how individuals successfully manage c... more This study adopts a dynamic systems approach to investigate how individuals successfully manage contextual complexity. To that end, we tracked individuals' emotional trajectories during a challenging training course, seeking qualitative changes–turning points—and we tested their relationship with the perceived complexity of the training. The research context was a 5-day higher education course based on process-oriented experiential learning, and the sample consisted of 17 students. The students used a five-point Likert scale to rate the intensity of 16 emotions and the complexity of the training on 8 measurement points. Monte Carlo permutation tests enabled to identify 30 turning points in the 272 emotional trajectories analyzed (17 students * 16 emotions each). 83% of the turning points indicated a change of pattern in the emotional trajectories that consisted of: (a) increasingly intense positive emotions or (b) decreasingly intense negative emotions. These turning points also coincided with particularly complex periods in the training as perceived by the participants (p = 0.003, and p = 0.001 respectively). The relationship between positively-trended turning points in the students' emotional trajectories and the complexity of the training may be interpreted as evidence of a successful management of the cognitive conflict arising from the clash between the students' prior ways of meaning-making and the challenging demands of the training. One of the strengths of this study is that it provides a relatively simple procedure for identifying turning points in developmental trajectories, which can be applied to various longitudinal experiences that are very common in educational and developmental contexts. Additionally, the findings contribute to sustaining that the assumption that complex contextual demands lead unfailingly to individuals' learning is incomplete. Instead, it is how individuals manage complexity which may or may not lead to learning. Finally, this study can also be considered a first step in research on the developmental potential of process-oriented experiential learning training.

We investigate intra-individual processes of identity at the micro level. With an intensive longi... more We investigate intra-individual processes of identity at the micro level. With an intensive longitudinal design in the general context of higher education, we explore associations between changes in pivotal identity concepts: commitment and exploration and elaborate on how we conceptualize these concepts on a micro level. With our within-individual empirical approach, we revealed a large amount of variation between individuals with respect to the associations between exploration and commitment processes. At the same time, similarities were found amongst individuals, which help extend and clarify existing findings regarding identity development. Our findings highlight the necessity to, firstly, distinguish between micro-and macro-level identity processes. Secondly, and in the same vein, our findings emphasize the heterogeneous nature of micro-level identity processes, and the necessity to use a within individual approach to study these processes. Introduction Since Erikson formulated his theory on adolescent identity development in 1968, many perspectives have been taken on what identity actually is, and how it develops over time. Because of the difficulty in translating such a complex, abstract construct as identity into something that can be measured in many ways, questions on what identity is and how it develops are still relevant. This is true even after more than half a century of both qualitative and quantitative identity research (e.g. Syed & McLean, 2015). In this article, we aim to further understanding and stimulate discussion on micro-level processes (which contrast macro-level processes) of identity development (Lichtwarck-Aschoff, Van Geert, Bosma, & Kunnen, 2008). Building on the work of Klimstra et al. (2010) we elaborate the conceptualization and operationalization of identity on a micro-level, specifically in the domain of education/career choice. In our empirical study we explore associations between micro-level change processes of exploration and commitment within individuals. Macro and micro approaches to identity processes There is both a lot and little known about identity development, depending on the feature of identity that is the focus. A lot is known about what Lichtwarck-Aschoff et al. (2008) termed the 'macro-level' feature of identity development. This feature

Education Research International, 2013

Recent Research in Psychology, 1990

Journal of deaf studies and deaf education, 2014

We studied identity development during 5 years in seven deaf adolescents who attended a school fo... more We studied identity development during 5 years in seven deaf adolescents who attended a school for deaf children in the highest level of regular secondary education (age between 14 and 18 years), administering identity interviews every year. Identity development is conceptualized as the processes of exploration and commitment formation (Bosma, 1985). We started from the assumption that because deaf adolescents meet more challenges and also-in our sample-were stimulated in their identity development by school programs, they meet identity conflicts at a relatively early age. The findings were highly consistent with our hypotheses that-compared to a general sample-identity development proceeds faster than in a hearing group and that commitment formation in the domain "Being Deaf" starts earlier than in other domains. We did not find evidence for the hypothesis that commitment formation in this domain in the last year was more mature than in other domains due to a ceiling effect.

In this document norm scores are given for the sub scales of the GIDS (Groningen Identity Develop... more In this document norm scores are given for the sub scales of the GIDS (Groningen Identity Development Scale). These norms are based on the data of three groups of students of applied and academic universities in the north of the Netherlands. These groups differ with respect to the year in which they were assessed (1995, 2002 and 2012), with regard to gender, to the distribution of the studies they did, the level of education (applied versus academic), and with regard to the type of rewards they received for participating. Anova analysis showed that the scores of the three groups were comparable: for none of the sub scales the significance of the difference was below 0.15, most significance levels were between 0.5 and 0.9, and there is no meaningful pattern in the differences. For that reason we decided to calculate the norms on the combined data. The complete group consists of 43 male and 108 female participants with a mean age of 19.1 and an age range between 17.5 and 22 years. The...

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2014

Journal of Adolescence, 2009

International Journal of Behavioral Development, 1993

... Assessing perceived control by asking for attributions is based on the assumption that specif... more ... Assessing perceived control by asking for attributions is based on the assumption that specific causes "belong" in one of the cells. ... This confirms our first hypothesis: If children under the age of 12 attribute school failures to "lack of competence", "task difficulty", or "bad expla ...

Identity, 2010

A panel of 89 first-year university students participated in a longitudinal study concerning thei... more A panel of 89 first-year university students participated in a longitudinal study concerning their perceptions of their career goals. As predicted, students who experienced a conflict with respect to their career goals increased their exploration activity and decreased the strength of their commitment. In addition, they perceived more change in commitments during their first year than those not experiencing a conflict. Despite the differences between the groups in the trajectories of their experiences, the groups were not distinguishable at the beginning of this study with regard to identity style, identity status, personality characteristics, or coping style. On the basis of the content of the commitments, it appears that open, information-oriented students who already have developed achieved commitments will likely experience different types of conflict, but not necessarily fewer conflicts, than will other first-year students.

European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2015

Infant and Child Development, 2000

Nonlinear dynamics, psychology, and life sciences, 2016

Intra-individual variability is a central topic in Nonlinear Dynamical Systems (NDS) studies of h... more Intra-individual variability is a central topic in Nonlinear Dynamical Systems (NDS) studies of human development, because the theory predicts that particular forms or properties of intra-individual variability will serve as indicators or predictors of bifurcations, and stable states in individual development. Currently, there are almost no studies that address intra-individual changes and variability of Health Related Quality of Life in old age. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the role of day-to-day HRQOL variability and long term HRQOL and disability development in a sample of institutionalized older adults. 22 older adults took part in this longitudinal study. Daily diary-based assessments were made for a period of 100 days. Furthermore, monthly assessments of HRQOL and disability with validated questionnaires were performed. The intra individual variability on a day-to-day basis was found to be related to HRQOL and disability development. Furthermore, life events as ope...

Journal of Transformative Education, 2018

Frontiers in Psychology, 2017

Education Research International, 2013

Recent Research in Psychology, 1990

Journal of deaf studies and deaf education, 2014

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2014

Journal of Adolescence, 2009

International Journal of Behavioral Development, 1993

Identity, 2010

European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2015

Infant and Child Development, 2000

Nonlinear dynamics, psychology, and life sciences, 2016

16th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 2013

Our research focuses on the study of individual trajectories and processes of change over time in... more Our research focuses on the study of individual trajectories and processes of change over time in adolescents and emerging adults in contexts of learning and developmental, in line with the recent currents in psychology, which pay attention to the dynamic processes and adopt an ideographic approach to understand the complexity and multiplicity of the individual (Fischer, 2006; Toomela, 2007; Valsiner, 2009).
This time, we analyzed data coming from an intensive summer course of six days that was celebrated in July 2011 in the University of Alcalá, Spain. This course was aimed to explore the transitions on learning through an experiential methodology focused on the process (Ingarfield, 2007; McWhirter, 2000). The 28 students attending the course filled out in 14 occasions throughout the course an emotional scale in which they had to track the intensity, in a Likert scale from 1 to 5, of 11 different emotions (joy, sadness, anger, fear, happiness, interest, anxiety, boredom, illusion, concern, challenge).
As a first step different types of principal component analysis were performed in order to obtain two groups of emotions, positive and negative, that were used to approach the individual trajectories of the students. Subsequently, we approach this task using Dynamic Systems techniques (Van Geert, 1994; Kunnen, 2011), such as Monte Carlo simulations, which allow to assess specific process characteristics such as variability or sudden jumps. In this way we explored the following issues: differences between subgroups of students in terms of their previous experience with the learning methodology implemented, specific patterns followed, turning points occurred in different moments of the course and intraindividual differences.
This work tries to bring some ideas on the study of developmental processes as well as on the field of intervention, by providing some clues to promote transitions in learning environments.

V Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores de la Universidad de Alcalá, Dec 3, 2014

Desde el enfoque de la Teoría de los Sistemas Dinámicos, estamos especialmente interesados en el ... more Desde el enfoque de la Teoría de los Sistemas Dinámicos, estamos especialmente interesados en el estudio del desarrollo y del cambio en contextos de aprendizaje en educación superior. El presente estudio se centra específicamente en la exploración de las trayectorias emocionales de los participantes en un curso intensivo de metodología experiencial que se llevó a cabo en la Universidad de Alcalá en junio de 2013. A la hora de estudiar esas trayectorias estábamos interesados en el concepto déturning point´(punto de giro), como un indicador de transición relacionado con la adaptación de los estudiantes a una metodología de aprendizaje desafiante y compleja. Los 26 participantes en el curso evaluaron en una escala tipo Likert del 1 al 5, y a lo largo de 8 puntos de medida, la intensidad de 16 emociones y la complejidad del curso. A través de Técnicas de Muestro Aleatorio se detectaron turning points en las trayectorias emocionales de los estudiantes. Así mismo, se demostró la correlación entre altas puntuaciones de complejidad y la ocurrencia de los citados turning points. De estos resultados pueden derivarse implicaciones educativas en relación a cómo un contexto de aprendizaje desafiante puede ser útil a la hora de desestabilizar antiguos patrones de aprendizaje y promover la aparición de nuevos.

European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA), 2014

Current ideographic approaches in psychology show that, in order to fully understand the complexi... more Current ideographic approaches in psychology show that, in order to fully understand the complexity of the individual, attention must be paid to the dynamic processes involved in development, by analysing processes, trajectories, variations and patterns (Fischer, 2006; Toomela, 2007; Valsiner, 2009).
On this basis, our research focuses on the study of individual trajectories and processes of change over time in adolescents and emerging adults, which we explore on educational settings based on experiential learning (Ingarfield, 2007; McWhirter, 2000). This is a challenging methodology, providing contexts that facilitate qualitatively different ways to approach learning, such as exploring, doubting or questioning. The practice of these competences is believed to lead the students to a higher self-direction (Perry, 1970; Kegan, 1994; Baxter-Magolda, 2000, 2004).
We did a follow-up of 31 students (21 women and 10 men) who attended to a five-day summer course (45 hours) that was focused on self-learning and life-long learning. Time-series coming from ten questionnaires distributed throughout the course were used to explore how the students experienced the complexity and challenge of the course, focusing on aspects such as 1) the occurrence and intensity of a variety of emotions 2) their style of learning, linked to issues of security and development, management of uncertainty and processes of assimilation and accommodation.
Our aim was to explore the intra-individual variability. More specifically, we were interested in detecting turning points indicating a change in the trend of the trajectories following a specific real-life event. In order to do this we used Dynamic Systems techniques (Van Geert, 1994; Kunnen et al., 2011) that allow the assessment of process characteristics.
Our preliminary results show that there are specific moments around the middle of the course when a considerable number of students present a change on the trend of their trajectories in terms of variability. These significant points coincide with those moments when the learning experience is more challenging 1) with regards to the complexity of the theoretical background implied or 2) in terms of the experiential sequence of activities suggested.
We consider that this research can provide clues about the relationship between students´ learning trajectories, with particular attention to the occurrence of turning points, and the level of complexity and challenge in experiential learning contexts. As undergraduate education teachers, we consider these findings useful in order to design learning experiences that promote optimal learning trajectories by carefully guiding the development.